HENT 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 

IN  MEMORY  OF 

Dr.  Harold  W.  Fairbanks 

PRESENTED  BY 

Miss  Helena  K.  Fairbanks 


Spirit  of  tl)e 
Orient 

George  William  ftnor 


.  Crotoell  &  Co, 


Copyright,  1905,  by  The  Chautauqua  Press 

Copyright,  1906,  by  Thomas  Y.  Crowell  &  Co. 

Published  September,  1906 


Composition  and  electrotype  plates  by 
D.  B.  Updike,  The  Merrymount  Press,  Boston 


Contents 


Introductory 

Page 

America  and  the  East  ix 

I 
The  American  Point  of  View  3 

Likeness  of  the  East  and  West  in  the  needs  of  their  common 
humanity.  Heredity  not  the  explanation  of  our  differences.  Ways 
in  which  we  are  indebted  to  the  Orient.  Period  of  separation  of 
the  East  from  the  West.  Acquaintance  of  the  East  and  West 
before  separation.  Opening  of  the  history  of  India  in  our  times. 
Variety  of  races  in  the  East  as  great  as  in  the  West.  Parts  of 
the  East  to  which  the  present  study  is  restricted.  Respects  in 
which  the  Occident  is  one  in  religion.  Unity  of  the  West  in 
its  literature,  law,  art  and  science.  Social  conditions  promot- 
ing this  unity.  Great  common  feature  in  the  Eastern  civiliza- 
tions. Buddhism  a  bond  of  union  between  them.  Reasons  why  it 
is  less  influential  than  Christianity  has  been  in  the  West.  Idea 
of  "personality"  as  held  in  the  West  quite  absent  from  the 
East.  The  difference  accounted  for.  By  this  influence  the  East 
has  been  made  lacking  in  historic  interest.  Effect  upon  the 
masses  of  the  people.  The  Spirit  of  the  East  as  expressed  by  its 
great  men. 

II 

The  Asiatic  Point  of  View  41 

General  impression  of  the  East  upon  the  traveller.  The  Orien- 
tal's answer  in  general  to  our  criticism  of  his  forlorn  surround- 
ings. The  Oriental's  reason  for  detesting  the  West.  The  Orien- 
tals' comparison  of  our  learning  with  theirs.  Causes  for  their 
considering  our  superiority  as  physical  and  material.  Contrast 
of  their  spirit  of  meditation  with  ours  of  restless  energy.  Their 
devotion  to  the  ways  of  their  fathers  a  hindrance  to  progress. 
Benefits  given  by  England  to  India  and  the  attitude  of  the  peo- 
ple toward  them.  Difference  between  Japan's  attitude  toward 
the  West  and  that  of  China  and  India. 

iii 


77575P 


Contents 

III  Page 

India,  its  People  and  Customs  73 

The  great  geographical  divisions  of  India.  The  coming  of  the 
Mongolians  to  India,  and  their  place  of  settlement.  Character- 
istics of  the  Aryans.  Place  of  their  establishment.  Destiny  of  the 
races  displaced  by  the  Aryans.  The  coming  of  the  Mohamme- 
dans. Other  races  in  addition  to  the  above.  Physical  features  of 
India.  Their  effect  upon  the  population.  Efforts  of  the  govern- 
ment to  improve  conditions.  Some  of  the  chief  occupations  in 
India.  Extent  of  illiteracy.  The  part  of  ornament  in  the  life  of 
the  people.  The  "simple  life  "  illustrated.  Marriage  and  other 
customs  as  causes  of  disastrous  financial  troubles.  Relation  of 
the  Brahmans  to  other  Hindus.  Place  held  by  the  Mohammedan 
faith.  Variety  of  languages  existing  in  India.  Influence  of  the 
caste  system  upon  Indian  social  life. 

IV 
India,  its  Spirit  and  Problems  109 

Difficulty  of  describing  the  religious  life  of  India.  Some  of  the 
superstitions  current  among  the  people.  Varieties  in  gods  and 
religious  rites.  Content  of  the  term  Hinduism.  The  religion  of 
India  in  its  highest  development.  Conversation  between  a  Chris- 
tian Brahman  and  a  Hindu  in  regard  to  God.  Varied  forms  in 
•which  Buddha  is  believed  to  have  lived.  The  Indian's  delight  in 
extravagances  as  illustrated  by  his  measure  of  time.  Hindu's 
conception  of  karma.  Effects  of  climate  and  habits  of  thought 
upon  the  life  of  the  people.  Ways  of  improving  the  physical 
well-being  of  the  people.  The  burdensome  expense  of  maintain- 
ing the  British  population.  Moral  effect  upon  the  native  of  this 
foreign  occupation.  Degree  of  India's  self-government.  Possible 
accomplishments  of  education.  The  part  of  Christianity  in  solv- 
ing India's  problems. 

V 
China,  its  People  and  Customs  147 

Geographical  description.  Difference  from  India  as  regards  for- 
eign conquests.  Strong  race  pride.  The  time  when  China  led  the 
world  in  her  achievements.  Collections  of  records  available  to 
the  Chinese  scholar.  Surface  characteristics  of  a  Chinese  vil- 

iv 


Contents 

Page 

lage.  Chinese  contrasted  with  the  Indians  as  to  variety  of  race 
and  religion  and  caste  distinctions.  The  foreigner's  difficulty  in 
knowing  the  Chinese.  Respect  for  learning.  Ineffective  method 
of  study.  The  foreigner  a  barbarian  from  the  Chinese  point  of 
view.  Foreign  judgments  of  China  seldom  of  value.  Etiquette  as 
a  barrier  to  foreign  intercourse.  Its  intricacy  illustrated.  The 
Hindu  and  Chinese  conceptions  of  our  ideals.  Chinese  attitude 
toward  war.  Evidences  of  the  industry  of  the  Chinese.  China's 
claims  upon  our  respect. 

VI 

China,  its  Spirit  and  Problems  181 

The  family  as  the  unit.  Extinction  of  the  family  a  calamity.  The 
Chinaman  not  naturally  an  emigrant.  Government  of  villages. 
Lack  of  patriotism.  Limitations  of  the  power  of  the  emperor. 
Departments  of  the  government.  Prevalence  of  "graft"  Social 
morality  compared  with  that  of  Europe.  Monotony  of  Chinese 
life.  Lack  of  "nerves"  illustrated.  Disregard  of  life  contrasted 
with  care  of  the  dead.  Present  condition  of  Buddhism  in  China. 
Chief  teachings  of  Confucianism.  The  spirit  of  India  and  of  China 
contrasted  in  the  nature  of  their  religions.  Problems  presented 
by  the  poverty  of  China.  Insufficiency  of  the  Confucian  code  for 
the  present  nation.  Necessity  of  slow  progress  in  China. 

VII 
Japan,  its  People  and  Customs  217 

Japan  compared  with  other  countries  in  length,  area  and  popu- 
lation. Physical  character.  Origin  of  the  Japanese.  Changes 
brought  to  Japan  by  Buddhism.  Buddhism  and  the  earlier  reli- 
gion of  Japan.  Its  unfavorable  influence.  Its  neutralization  by 
Confucianism. The  civilization  of  Japan  as  an  Asiatic  type.  Over- 
coming of  the  spirit  of  luxury.  A  social  organization  like  that  of 
feudal  Europe.  The  development  of  a  different  spirit  from  that 
of  India  or  China.  Privileges  and  limitations  of  the  Japanese 
farmer.  The  story  of  the  farmer  who  sacrificed  himself  for  his 
fellows.  Hardships  and  pleasures  of  the  peasant.  Young  farmers 
become  coolies.  Japan  likened  to  Italy.  Dishonesty  of  commer- 
cial life.  Peculiar  features  of  domestic  service.  Elements  of  kin- 
ship between  nature  and  man  in  Japan. 


Contents 

VIII  Page 

Japan,  its  Spirit  and  Problems  251 

Criticism  made  of  Japan  twenty  years  ago.  Study  of  the  West 
Contrast  presented  by  Japanese  to  China  and  India.  Influence 
of  the  men  of  rank  in  bringing  about  the  changes.  Development 
of  the  spirit  of  national  loyalty.  The  story  of  the  "Forty-seven 
Ronins  "  as  an  illustration.  The  new  position  of  the  emperor  as 
embodying  the  national  spirit.  The  general  form  of  governmen- 
tal organization.  Power  of  the  Satsuma  and  Choshu  clans.  Po- 
litical danger  in  the  influence  of  the  Imperial  Diet.  Dangers  of 
the  new  commercial  development  Handicap  of  education.  Great 
moral  questions  confronting  Japan.  Kind  of  ethical  ideal  needed 
by  the  people. 

IX 

The  New  World  283 

Significance  of  the  victory  of  Japan  over  Russia.  India  and  China 
not  a  "yellow  peril."  Japan  unlikely  to  go  to  war  again.  East 
and  West  compared.  The  two  forces  that  gave  power  to  the 
West.  Two  reasons  why  liberty  is  essential  to  progress.  Japan's 
sacrifice  to  secure  liberty  and  truth.  Influence  of  the  Russo- 
Japanese  War  upon  India  and  China.  Doctrine  of  "Asia  for 
the  Asiatics  "  important  for  the  world.  Gifts  which  the  Spirit  of 
the  East  may  have  for  the  West 

Bibliography  311 


of  3!Uu$tration0 


Page 

A  Chinese  Family  Frontispiece 

The  Great  Mosque  at  Delhi,  India     Facing    14 
Seth's  Temple,  Brindaban,  India  28 

Mohammedan  Mosque,  near  Bidar,  Dec- 
can,  India  60 

Tank  and  Northern  Gopuram,  Chidamba- 
ram, India  76 

Babatul  Temple,  Umritsar,  India  90 

The  Kutub  Minar,  Delhi,  India  104 

Hindu  Funeral  Pyres  at  the  Ganges  River, 
Benares,  India  122 

The  Towers  of  Silence,  Bombay,  where  the 
Parsee  dead  are  exposed  136 

A  very  old  Chinese  University  where  many 
famous  scholars  have  studied  148 

Temple  of  Heaven,  Peking,  where  the  Em- 
peror worships  158 

Rice  Terraces,  China  172 

A  Mixed  Court,  Chinese  and  European,  at 
Shanghai  184 

A  Chinese  Funeral  Procession  194 


A    Cemetery    near    Foochow,    showing 
Omega-shaped  graves  206 

A  Coast  Scene,  Japan  218 

Japanese  Bhuddist  Priests,  begging  224 

Canal  in  Tokyo  230 

Capitol   of  the   Hokkaido,  at   Sapporo, 
North  Japan  234 

Japanese  Farmers  240 

Peculiar  Effect  of  the  Earthquake,  Oc- 
tober 28, 1891  246 

Wreck  of  Cotton  Factory,  Nagoya,  Japan, 
by  the  Earthquake  of  1891  250 

Native  Method  of  spinning  Cotton,  Japan  254 

Geishas  dancing  at  a  Shinto  Religious 
Festival  260 

Theatrical  Performance  at  a  Shinto  Reli- 
gious Festival  268 

Japanese  Pupils  274 

Japanese  Women  dressing  the  hair  282 

A  General  Store  in  Japan  290 

A  Street  in  Nagasaki  208 

Gateway  to  the  Palace  of  the  Prince,Tokyo  306 


gjntrotwaot? 
amertca  ant)  t^e 


HE  EVENTS  of  the  last 
ten  years  have  aroused  the 
American  people  to  a  new 
interest  in  the  affairs  of  the 
Far  East.  The  United  States  has  be- 
come a  "world  power"  in  a  new  sense, 
and  its  people  know  that  they  cannot 
longer  isolate  themselves.  Whatever 
maybe  our  judgment  as  to  the  wisdom 
of  the  course  pursued,  we  must  accept 
accomplished  facts.  Not  only  have 
we  the  great  Pacific  seaboard,  which 
alone  would  make  Asia  of  prime  impor- 
tance to  us,  but  we  have  acquired  the 
Sandwich  Islands  and  the  Philippine 
Archipelago.  Thus  we  seem  to  have 
penetrated  the  Orient  and  to  have 
numbered  ourselves  among  its  peo- 
ples, so  that  the  coming  decades  are 
certain  to  be  filled  with  questions  of  the 
highest  and  most  lasting  importance 

ix 


JnttoDuftorp 


to  us  and  to  our  Asiatic  neighbors. 
Politics,  commerce,  science,  religion, 
art,  literature,  social  customs,  the  eco- 
nomic situation,  are  all  to  be  pro- 
foundly affected.  Doubtless  within  a 
century  our  Asiatic  relations  will  be  at 
least  as  great  as  our  interests  in  the 
lands  across  the  Atlantic. 

Already  we  face  a  situation  of  world- 
wide importance,  for  we  are  attempt- 
ing a  new  experiment.  European  pow- 
ers have  established  empires  in  the 
East  repeatedly,  ruling  over  vast  po- 
pulations by  force.  Some  of  these  em- 
pires have  been  benevolent  and  some 
have  been  greedy  and  unscrupulous, 
but  in  all  alike  the  fundamental  prin- 
ciple has  been  government  by  a  su- 
perior race  through  force. 

In  our  Asiatic  possessions  we  are 
adopting  a  different  course,  as  the 
principles  of  the  American  nation  are 
government  by  the  people  and  for  the 
people.  We  proclaim  these  principles 
in  our  dependencies,  and  we  are  at- 


America  anD  tfte  (East 


tempting  to  introduce  universal  educa- 
tion in  preparation  for  their  practical 
application.  On  every  side  we  are  told 
by  experienced  observers  that  this 
is  an  impossibility,  for  the  people  of 
the  East  must  be  governed,  they  can- 
not rule  themselves,  and  that  we  are 
trying  to  graft  our  ideas  upon  a  stock 
which  cannot  receive  them.  If  this  be 
so,  not  only  will  our  present  experi- 
ment be  a  failure,  but  our  own  politi- 
cal principles  must  be  modified.  In- 
stead of  asserting  that  government  is 
of  the  people,  by  the  people  and  for 
the  people,  we  shall  be  obliged  to  add 
when  the  people  are  of  Anglo-Saxon 
descent.  At  present,  however,  we  are 
not  convinced  by  the  testimony  of 
these  experienced  observers,  but  we 
are  determined  to  persevere  in  our 
experiment. 

This  instance  is  brought  forward 
merely  as  an  illustration,  one  out  of  a 
long  line  of  instances  that  might  be 
adduced,  showing  how  grave  are  the 

xi 


problems  before  us.  In  the  past  we 
have  boldly  and  crudely  attacked  our 
difficulties  as  they  have  presented 
themselves,  with  a  strong  confidence 
in  the  intellectual  vigor  and  moral  in- 
tegrity of  the  people.  This  confidence 
on  the  whole  has  been  justified,  for  our 
national  problems  have  involved  fac- 
tors with  which  we  were  at  least  mea- 
surably acquainted.  The  new  situa- 
tion, however,  demands  the  educat- 
ing and  informing  of  the  people,  for 
the  problems  to  be  solved  include  un- 
known factors.  Nor  can  we  pride  our- 
selves upon  our  success  in  dealing  with 
Eastern  Asia  hitherto,  though  only  re- 
latively simple  questions  have  pre- 
sented themselves. 

It  is  true  that  our  diplomatic  history 
in  the  Far  East  has  not  been  stained 
by  such  records  as  have  disgraced  the 
European  powers.  The  story  of  diplo- 
macy in  China,  with  the  wars  which 
have  grown  out  of  it,  is  one  which  we 
can  read  only  with  profound  shame, 
xii 


America  anD  tbe  <2Ea0t 


As  has  been  repeatedly  pointed  out, 
it  has  been  the  papers  of  the  Chinese 
diplomats  which  have  read  like  the 
statements  of  a  Christian  power, 
whereas  the  papers  of  Great  Britain, 
France  and  Germany  have  ignored 
not  only  the  teachings  of  Christ  but 
the  fundamental  principles  of  interna- 
tional morality.  No  pretext  has  been 
too  insignificant  or  too  immoral  to  be 
made  an  occasion  for  aggression.  The 
United  States  has  not  thus  been  in- 
volved in  a  tortuous,  immoral  and  ag- 
gressive diplomacy,  but  it  has  none 
the  less  profited  by  all  that  has  been 
extorted,  and  time  and  again  its  moral 
support  has  been  given  to  the  cause 
of  the  stronger.  It  has  not  been,  one 
fears,  our  superior  morality  but  the 
less  pressing  nature  of  our  interests 
which  has  made  us  more  reasonable, 
and,  shall  I  add,  more  Christian. 
For  when  our  interests  have  been 
directly  concerned,  we  have  been  not 
less  open  to  charges  of  political  im- 

xiii 


3lnttoDitftotp 


morality.  We  accepted  an  admission 
to  China  which  was  forced.  We  initi- 
ated diplomatic  action  leading  China 
to  seek  admission  to  the  sisterhood  of 
nations.  We  framed  treaties  for  an 
equality  of  rights  on  both  sides,  then 
shamelessly  we  violated  our  own  treat- 
ies by  act  of  Congress,  and  passed  acts 
concerning  the  exclusion  of  the  Chi- 
nese which  remain  our  lasting  dis- 
grace. It  is  not  argued  here  that  Chi- 
nese coolies  should  not  have  been 
excluded,  but  it  is  merely  pointed  out 
that  our  Congress,  under  threat  of  los- 
ing the  labor  vote,  passed  laws  of 
exclusion  which  violated  our  sacred 
treaties.  It  is  also  a  matter  of  fact  that 
the  same  substantial  result  could  have 
been  attained  by  consultation  with  the 
Chinese  government  and  through  a 
modification  of  the  treaties.  Our  course 
in  this  matter  was  thus  not  only  shame- 
less but  needless. 

It  is  not  fair  to  overlook  extenuating 
circumstances.  Neither  the  people  of 


XIV 


america  ana  tbe  <£a0t 


Great  Britain  nor  the  people  of  the 
United  States  desired  to  do  an  injus- 
tice to  the  Chinese,  but  certain  inter- 
ests, in  England  those  of  trade,  in 
America  those  of  labor,  were  threat- 
ened, and  the  people  in  general  were 
ignorant  and  therefore  indifferent. 
This  again  is  brought  forward  merely 
as  an  illustration  of  the  kind  of  pro- 
blem which  awaits  solution  in  the  fu- 
ture. Since  government  is  not  only  for 
the  people  but  by  the  people,  ignorance 
and  indifference  cannot  be  pleaded  as 
valid  excuses.  As  the  statesman  must 
know  the  problems  before  the  govern- 
ment, as  the  manager  of  great  busi- 
ness interests  must  know  the  condi- 
tions of  his  trade,  so  the  American 
people  must  understand  the  problems 
with  which  they  have  to  deal. 
Probably  in  no  other  field  have  such 
efforts  been  put  forth  for  the  under- 
standing of  Oriental  peoples  as  in  that 
of  religion.  Missionaries  have  made 
the  East  their  adopted  home  and  they 

XV 


have  tried  sympathetically  to  under- 
stand their  neighbors.  Such  an  under- 
standing is  indeed  of  even  greater  im- 
portance to  the  missionary  than  to  the 
diplomat  or  the  merchant.  He  must 
know  and  respect  the  peoples  to  whom 
he  is  to  reveal  his  higher  truth.  But 
our  new  relations  to  the  Orient  have 
led  to  a  twofold  criticism  of  the  possi- 
bility of  missionary  success.  On  the 
one  hand,  certain  critics  tell  us  that 
the  "natives"  are  too  debased  for  ex- 
alted Christian  truth,  and  that  the 
Asiatic  cannot  change  his  nature  more 
readily  than  can  the  leopard  his  spots. 
All  converts,  we  are  assured,  are  hypo- 
crites who  desire  worldly  gain.  On  the 
other  hand,  other  critics  are  telling  us 
that  the  Asiatics  already  have  reli- 
gions of  such  exalted  types  and  ethics 
so  pure  that  they  do  not  need  our 
teaching  in  either  field.  Hence,  accord- 
ing to  these  writers,  it  is  an  imperti- 
nence for  us  to  carry  our  religion  to 
Asia.  Manifestly  we  must  see  with  our 
xvi 


america  and  t&e  <£ast 


own  eyes  and  understand  for  our- 
selves, when  such  opposed  views  can 
be  given.  The  religious  world,  there- 
fore, no  less  than  the  political  and 
commercial,  is  interested  in  a  com- 
pleter  understanding  of  the  Far  East. 
This  little  volume  is  an  attempt  to- 
ward such  an  understanding.  No  ob- 
server can  do  more  than  report  what 
appears  to  him.  No  student  can  mas- 
ter so  vast  a  subject  in  all  its  complex- 
ities. It  is  only  by  the  cooperation  of 
many  that  we  may  hope  to  come  to 
understand  in  a  measure  our  topic,  and 
it  is  necessary  to  this  end  that  each 
writer  should 

"  —  draw  the  thing  as  he  sees  it 
For  the  God  of  things  as  they  are." 


Reprinted  by  permission  from  "The  Chautauquan" 
for  September,  October  and  November,  1905 


I 
Cbe  american  Point  of  teteto 


I 
C^e  amertcan  $ofnt  of 

H  East  is  East,  and  West  is  West, 
and  never  the  twain  shall  meet 

Till  Earth  and  Sky  stand  presently 
at  God's  great  Judgment  Seat." 

Mr.  Kipling  thus  vigorously  expresses 
the  common  opinion.  Something  sep- 
arates the  Oriental  from  the  Occi- 
dental. It  is  not  merely  that  our  fash- 
ions are  different,  the  clothes  we  wear, 
the  houses  we  dwell  in,  the  food  we 
eat,  our  ways  of  play  as  our  methods 
of  work,  but  that  there  is  a  deeper 
separation  in  life  and  spirit.  How  sel- 
dom do  we  understand  each  other,  or 
either  Oriental  or  Occidental  interpret 
aright  the  life  of  the  other.  A  professor 
in  the  government  college  in  Luck- 
now,  who  had  spent  years  in  India 
and  who  spoke  the  vernacular,  once 
said  to  me,  "None  of  us  know  these 
people.  We  do  not  understand  their 
purposes  nor  their  feelings.  Before  the 

3 


&b*  Spirit 


mutiny  the  residents  supposed  they 
understood  them,  and  they  trusted  the 
people  as  they  trusted  themselves, 
and  then  suddenly,  without  warning, 
came  the  explosion.  So  now  we  do 
not  profess  to  know,  but  we  feel  as  if 
living  on  the  thin  crust  of  a  volcano." 
I  went  out  to  the  cantonments  to  ser- 
vice on  Sunday  and  the  splendid  Brit- 
ish regiments  came  to  chapel  fully 
armed,  bringing  their  loaded  guns 
into  the  building.  For  in  the  mutiny 
some  troops  were  caught  in  church 
unarmed,  and  since  that  time  no  risks 
are  taken. 

This  is  the  repulsive  side  of  the  con- 
trast, but  it  has  its  charm  also.  The 
traveller  who  has  exhausted  the  re- 
sources of  the  West,  to  whom  Amer- 
ica and  Europe  are  an  old  story,  finds 
himself  in  the  home  of  romance  when 
he  enters  the  East.  Its  unfamiliarity 
is  its  charm,  and  who  has  wholly  es- 
caped its  spell?  Poetry,  and  tales,  and 
art,  and  mystery  have  come  from  the 
4 


American  Ipoint 


East,  so  that  even  the  sight  of  the 
great  ships  engaged  in  the  Eastern 
trade  has  been  an  inspiration.  We 
love  to  emphasize  the  differences  as 
we  tire  of  the  commonplace  West. 
Travellers  and  authors  flee  to  the 
Orient  that  their  nerves  may  tingle 
with  its  freshness  and  novelty. 

"But  there  is  neither  East  nor  West,  Border, 

nor  Breed,  nor  Birth, 

When  two  strong  men  stand  face  to  face  though 
they  come  from  the  ends  of  the  earth." 

So  Mr.  Kipling  continues,  and  we  may 
ask  at  least  whether  the  East  after 
all  is  separated  from  the  West  when 
each  seeks  to  understand  the  other. 
Doubtless  the  Spirit  of  the  East  dif- 
fers from  the  Spirit  of  the  West,  else 
there  would  be  no  occasion  for  this 
book,  but  beneath  them  both  is  our 
common  humanity. 
Deep  and  wide  is  our  separation,  and 
strange  to  each  other  are  the  two 
great  earth  Spirits,  and  yet  all  men 


€be  Spirit  of  tte  SDrtent 


are  one.  Could  we  creep  for  a  while 
into  each  other's  skin  and  look  through 
each  other's  consciousness,  we  should 
feel  at  home.  The  greater  part  of  life 
is  the  same  for  all.  We  have  like  bod- 
ies with  their  members  and  their 
senses,  we  are  subject  to  the  same 
influences  of  air  and  light  and  dark- 
ness and  earth  and  sky.  We  have  the 
same  needs  for  food  and  drink  and 
sleep  and  clothes.  We  alike  are  social 
in  our  being,  and  the  great  drama  of 
life,  with  its  beginning  and  ending,  its 
pains  and  joys,  its  loves  and  hates,  is 
the  same  for  all,  so  that  in  no  met- 
aphorical sense,  but  in  the  most  lit- 
eral meaning  of  the  words,  we  are 
one. 

If  we  take  a  child  of  English  birth 
and  put  it  in  an  Eastern  environment 
we  shall  not  be  able  to  distinguish  it 
in  mental  traits  from  its  comrades  and 
neighbors.  I  knew  a  Chinese  woman 
who  was  taken  when  an  infant  by  a 
missionary  and  educated  as  his  child 
6 


Cfce  amencan  Point  of  I9teto 

in  his  home)  and  none  would  know 
from  her  language,  thought,  char- 
acter, or  interests  that  she  is  not  an 
American  born.  Or  in  less  favorable 
circumstances,  school-boys  have  been 
transformed  in  a  few  years  so  that  they 
were  strangers  and  foreigners  in  the 
land  of  their  birth.  All  of  us  who  have 
had  prolonged  experience  with  Ori- 
entals can  recall  such  examples.  No! 
It  is  not  anything  inherent  or  by  he- 
redity which  separates  us,  nor  can  we 
look  in  this  direction  for  our  explana- 
tion of  the  Spirit  of  the  Orient. 

Besides,  are  we  so  different  by  de- 
scent? Our  students  do  not  knownow- 
adays  what  to  make  of  the  word  "race." 
When  I  went  to  school  we  were  taught 
that  there  were  such  and  such  races 
with  well-defined  limits  and  bounda- 
ries, but  scholars  now  have  obliterated 
the  boundaries.  We  do  not  know  much 
about  the  tangled  lines  of  race  descent, 
but  we  do  know  that  some  of  our  an- 
cestors long  ago  came  out  of  Asia, 

7 


€6e  ^pirtt  of  tbe  HDrient 


while  some  of  their  brothers  remained 
in  the  ancestral  home  and  others  went 
south  to  India,  and  others  perhaps  far 
east  to  the  Pacific.  We  also  know  that 
wave  after  wave  of  Asiatic  population 
has  flowed  over  Europe,  until  we 
should  be  perplexed  to  define  a  pure 
European,  or  on  racial  lines  to  distin- 
guish East  from  West. 

In  the  beginning  of  our  historic  times 
the  differences  were  not  felt  as  to-day. 
The  Greek  hated  the  barbarian,  but  he 
did  not  distinguish  Oriental  from  Oc- 
cidental and  far  down  into  the  Chris- 
tian era  the  influence  of  Asia  upon 
Europe  was  great.  How  much  we  owe 
to  that  continent,  what  stores  of  phi- 
losophy and  art  and  religion!  How  in- 
deed shall  the  East  be  foreign  to  us, 
since  our  Saviour  dwelt  there  and  our 
prophets  and  sacred  books  are  of  it? 
Our  Holy  Land  is  in  the  Orient,  and 
we  cannot  understand  our  scriptures 
without  knowing  something  of  its  ge- 
ography, customs  and  tongues.  An 
8 


C6e  American  Point 


Oriental  may  be  excused  for  not  know- 
ing the  Occident,  but  we  show  our- 
selves unintelligent  if  we  confess  ig- 
norance of  the  source  of  so  much  which 
is  of  our  own  inheritance. 
There  was  no  deep  feeling  of  a  con- 
tinental difference  when  Alexander 
made  himself  an  Oriental  monarch, 
nor,  long  after,  when  St.  Paul  to  the 
Greeks  became  a  Greek.  Possibly  the 
sense  of  separation  came  with  the  dark 
ages,  when  the  East  was  blotted  out 
and  forgotten,  and  Europe  developed 
on  independent  lines.  Not  only  was 
there  separation,  but  antagonism, 
when  Moslem  was  arrayed  against 
Christian,  and  Europe  came  to  know 
itself  as  one  because  united  in  arms 
against  the  Turk.  An  impenetrable  bar- 
rier of  religion  and  hatred  interposed, 
and  men  did  not  so  much  as  wish  to 
understand  their  deadly  foes.  Behind 
the  Mohammedan  power,  India  and 
China  were  too  far  away  to  be  well 
remembered,  so  that  their  rediscovery 

9 


Cbe  Spirit  of  tbe  SDrient 


at  last  was  like  the  apparition  of  a 
new  world. 

The  separation  was  not  complete,  it 
is  true,  for  through  the  Moors  some- 
thing of  enlightenment  came  to  Eu- 
rope, and  missionaries  and  merchants 
attempted  adventures  in  the  East  at 
infrequent  intervals.  But  the  excep- 
tions did  not  change  the  rule,  and  in- 
tercommunication was  not  sufficient 
to  influence  the  development  of  the 
two  great  sections  of  humanity  along 
their  divergent  lines.  It  is  not  surpris- 
ing that  when  at  last  in  our  own  day 
the  two  civilizations  are  brought  to- 
gether they  are  strange  to  each  other. 
Let  two  brothers  be  separated  for  a 
score  of  years  and  how  unfamiliar  they 
are  grown.  European  and  Asiatic  were 
separated  for  more  than  forty  gene- 
rations, until  religion,  traditions,  cus- 
toms, and  conceptions  of  the  world  all 
are  different.  No  wonder  that  we  must 
be  reintroduced,  and  that  time  is 
needed  before  we  settle  down  once 
10 


€6e  American  ipomt  of  Bieto 

more  into  our  ancient  acquaintance- 
ship. Besides,  even  in  the  old  days, 
the  acquaintance  in  the  nature  of  the 
case  was  only  partial.  None  then  knew 
of  any  save  the  nearest  neighbor,  and 
the  strangest  things  were  believed  of 
folks  who  were  really  near  of  place 
and  blood.  Only  our  time  of  marvels 
makes  "the  whole  world  kin"  and  re- 
news on  better  terms  the  primitive 
unity,  as  at  last  it  is  possible  for  us 
to  know  "all  kinds  and  conditions  of 
men." 

In  this  modern  era  an  immense  a- 
mount  of  strength  and  time  has  been 
given  to  the  discovery  of  the  East  and 
to  the  scientific  mastery  of  its  facts. 
India,  for  example,  is  described  in  the 
volumes  of  the  Imperial  Census  with 
a  thoroughness  that  is  admirable.  Chi- 
na has  been  traversed  in  all  directions, 
and  in  such  a  work  as  "The  Middle 
Kingdom"  we  have  a  better  summary 
of  the  people  and  their  land  than  can 
be  found  in  the  Chinese  language.  Even 

ii 


Cfce  Spirit  of  tfceDrient 


Tibet  has  now  yielded  its  mysteries  to 
the  invader,  while  Burmah  and  Siam 
are  no  longer  remote  or  unknown.  With 
the  same  thoroughness  the  inner  life  of 
the  people  has  been  studied.  It  was 
English  and  French  scholarship  which 
opened  the  ancient  religion  of  India 
again  to  the  Hindus,  and  we  under- 
stand Buddhism  better  than  do  the 
Buddhists.  The  long  series  of  volumes, 
"The  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,"  is 
only  representative  of  a  small  portion 
of  the  labor  expended  upon  the  inves- 
tigation of  these  ancient  religious  sys- 
tems which  enshrine  the  faith  and 
hope  of  so  large  a  part  of  mankind. 

Doubtless  we  do  not  know  the  East. 
There  are  more  worlds  to  conquer, 
and  in  regions  already  traversed  much 
has  been  overlooked,  much  has  been 
misunderstood,  so  that  there  are  er- 
rors to  be  corrected  and  gaps  to  be 
filled  up.  Nevertheless  our  claim  is 
valid, — that  we  have  material  at  hand 
which  makes  it  possible  for  the  Occi- 
12 


Cftc  American  Point 


dental  to  describe  the  Orient  more 
completely,  more  justly,  and  more 
sympathetically  than  it  has  ever  been 
described  by  its  own  sons. 
We  have  written  of  "East"  and 
"West"  as  if  these  terms  stood  for 
well-defined  ideas.  But  we  know  that 
the  "West"  is  not  one,  and  we  should 
be  hard  put  to  it  were  we  forced  to 
define  the  word.  We  are  conscious  of 
our  differences,  and  hesitate  to  class 
together  Englishman,  Italian,  Hun- 
garian, Finn,  Spaniard,  South  Ameri- 
can, Frenchman,  German,  Russian  and 
American.  In  what,  pray,  are  we  alike 
and  how  shall  so  mixed  a  multitude 
be  put  together  over  against  the  Ori- 
entals? In  the  East  the  differences  are 
as  great  at  least.  What  relationship 
has  the  Arab  to  the  Hindu?  Can  we 
class  together  the  Turkand  the  peace- 
loving,  commercial  Chinese?  How 
widely  separated  again  are  the  Ko- 
reans from  their  near  neighbors,  the 
Japanese?  In  India  itself  there  is 

13 


Cbe  Spirit  of  tbeSDrient 


a  bewildering  multitude  of  peoples 
and  religions,  some  of  them  mutually 
hostile,  with  a  hatred  scarcely  ri- 
valled by  the  hatred  of  Jew  and  Rus- 
sian. We  can  think  of  the  East  as 
one  because  we  do  not  know  it,  as 
all  Chinamen  look  alike  to  most 
Americans,  the  individual  differences 
being  overlooked.  But  to  one  famil- 
iar with  the  people  their  differing 
personalities  are  as  striking  as  with 
ourselves.  So  it  is  with  races.  As  our 
knowledge  grows,  the  dissimilarity 
increases  until  we  come  to  wonder 
that  we  could  ever  have  thought  all 
the  dwellers  in  India  to  be  alike,  much 
less  the  differing  races  of  the  Asiatic 
continent.  It  is  therefore  only  in  the 
most  vague  fashion  that  we  can  speak 
of  the  "East"  as  an  entity,  or  set  it 
by  way  of  contrast  over  against  the 
"West." 

The  "East"  used  to  mean  western 
Asia,  the  classic  lands  of  our  religion 
and  the  home  of  the  Mohammedan 
14 


Cfje  American  point 


power,  with  India  as  a  remote  back- 
ground. But  in  our  day  there  is  a  vast- 
er Orient.  The  Mohammedan  lands, 
including  Persia,  are  only  its  western 
frontier;  India  is  its  southern  centre; 
while  more  important  than  them  all 
are  China  and  Japan  in  the  Far  East. 
Even  the  term  "Far  East"  becomes  a 
misnomer  since  the  Pacific  is  the  high- 
way of  nations  and  Japan  the  nearest 
neighbor  to  our  Californian  ports. 
We  have  excluded  from  this  sketch 
all  central  and  northern  Asia,  a  region 
of  great  historic  significance  and  not 
without  enduring  influence.  But  its 
mere  mention  here  is  all  that  we  can 
give  to  it,  nor  is  it  possible  to  include  the 
lesser  states  of  southeastern  Asia  in 
our  survey.  And  further,  we  must  cut 
off  the  older  Orient,  the  true  East  of 
the  Arabian  Nights  and  the  Crusades. 
We  come,  therefore,  to  the  two  re- 
maining portions,  India  and  the  Far 
East.  Again  we  are  tempted  to  divide, 
for  how  shall  we  group  these  together? 

15 


C6e  Spirit  of  tfte  Drient 


After  careful  consideration  we  decide 
to  include  them  both,  so  that  the 
"East"  in  this  book  shall  mean  India, 
Chinaandjapan,  adistinction  arbitrary 
in  its  inclusions  and  in  its  exclusions, 
and  of  use  only  in  a  practical  and  not 
a  scientific  way. 

Let  us  look  over  the  geography  of 
our  field.  Asia  contains  one  third  of 
the  land  surface  of  the  globe,  and  may 
be  divided  along  the  fortieth  degree 
of  latitude.  North  of  it  are  the  great 
stretches  of  plains,  deserts  and  low 
plateaux,  to  the  Arctic  Ocean,  the 
rivers  running  north;  while  south  of 
it,  with  some  intervening  space,  are 
the  empires  where  the  people  dwell 
with  whom  we  are  to  deal.  Even  in 
this  half,  kingdoms  must  be  ignored 
while  we  confine  ourselves  to  India, 
China  and  Japan.  Confine  ourselves, 
did  we  inadvertently  write?  How  could 
we  write  adequately  of  any  of  the 
three  in  twice  our  space?  But  one 
may  comfort  himself  with  the  reflec- 
16 


Cfie  american  Point 


tion  that  he  has  to  do  only  with  the 
"spirit"  of  the  East,  arid  that  he  may 
ignore  most  of  its  outward  form  and 
be  freed  from  statistics  and  geo- 
graphy and  politics,  save  as  they  im- 
mediately affect  the  soul,  and  from  a 
multitude  of  details  however  interest- 
ing. The  Spirit  too  can  spread  over 
the  Himalaya  ranges,  and  cross  the 
seas  between  China  and  Japan  in  a 
fashion  impossible  to  plodding  scien- 
tific research  or  to  the  most  rapid 
globe-trotter. 

The  dictionary  tells  us  that  "spirit" 
means  "a  peculiar  animating  and  in- 
spiring principle;  genius;  that  which 
pervades  and  tempers  the  conduct  and 
thought  of  men,  either  singly  or  (es- 
pecially) in  bodies,  and  characterizes 
them  and  their  works."  So  we  have 
the  "spirit  of  the  place"  or  the  "spirit 
of  the  age."  Evidently  then  there  must 
be  a  certain  unity  in  diversity,  and 
the  unity  must  be  something  which 
is  essential  if  we  are  to  speak  of  the 

17 


Cbe  Spirit  of  tbe  HDtient 


"spirit"  of  the  East.  In  what  sense  can 
we  use  the  term?  What  unity  pervad- 
ing and  tempering  the  conduct  and 
thoughts  of  men  can  we  find?  Perhaps 
we  shall  be  helped  if  we  ask  ourselves 
what  we  might  mean  by  the  "spirit 
of  the  Occident."  Let  us  strictly  limit 
the  West  also,  and  including  in  it 
only  the  nations  which  have  been 
closely  associated  —  Italy,  France, 
Germany,  England,  the  United  States 
— possibly  we  can  find  some  "genius" 
which  will  characterize  them  all. 

It  is  manifestly  out  of  the  question 
to  find  a  "spirit"  which  shall  be  alike 
in  all  the  innumerable  multitudewhich 
constitute  these  populations.  We 
know  many  Americans  whom  we 
should  not  wish  regarded  as  embody- 
ing the  American  spirit.  When  we 
speak  of  a  representative  American 
we  think  of  some  man  who  stands 
out  preeminent-— a  Washington,  a 
Franklin,  a  Lincoln,  an  Emerson,  a 
Longfellow — and  say  he  is  represent- 
18 


C6e  American  Point 


ative  and  embodies  the  American 
spirit.  It  is  related  that  once  a  group  of 
Englishmen  of  letters  discussed  whom 
they  would  choose  from  all  history  to 
represent  England  were  some  new 
planet  to  open  communication  with 
our  old  earth,  and  that  they  decided 
upon  Milton,  immortal  poet,  scholar, 
statesman,  gentleman,  Christian.  In 
some  such  fashion  we  pick  out  our  re- 
presentative who  embodies  the  Amer- 
ican spirit,  that  is,  who  incarnates  our 
ideal,  and  set  him  forth  as  the  kind 
of  man  we  would  have  foreigners  and 
strangers  judge  us  by. 
It  is  perhaps  impossible  to  pick  out 
in  this  fashion  the  representative 
Occidental,— the  differences  are  too 
great,— and  therefore  we  must  attack 
our  problem  in  more  indirect  fashion. 
With  all  our  diversity  there  is  a  cer- 
tain unity  in  the  West,  of  religion,  of 
social  organization,  of  political  forms, 
of  history,  of  art  and  literature  and 
music  and  architecture,  of  education 

19 


C6e  Spirit  of  tbe  Driem 


and  language  and  blood.  With  this 
too  is  the  constant  intermingling  of 
our  people  and  our  perpetual  inter- 
course in  friendship  or  in  rivalry.  First 
we  put  religion,  for  this  is  the  most 
powerful  in  its  influence.  When  we 
say  God,  or  heaven,  or  salvation,  or 
sin,  or  church,  our  thoughts  are  more 
or  less  alike,  and  our  diversities  are 
not  of  race  but  of  individuals,  so  that 
we  may  translate  these  terms  at  once 
into  all  the  languages  of  the  West 
without  danger  of  being  misunder- 
stood. Behind  us  is  the  same  great 
background  of  religious  truth ;  Israel 
with  its  prophets  and  apostles,  the 
creeds  of  the  early  church,  the  organ- 
ization of  the  mediaeval  church,  the 
struggles  of  the  Reformation,  all  be- 
long to  all  and  produce  a  true  unity 
in  this  realm  of  ultimate  reality. 
So  too  are  we  one  in  our  classical 
heritage;  our  literature  is  built  upon 
the  foundation  of  the  Greeks,  and  the 
great  writers  of  any  of  the  peoples — 
20 


Cfie  American  Point 


Dante,  Shakespeare,  Goethe  —  are 
naturalized  in  all.  Political  systems 
differ,  yet  the  Roman  law  is  the  com- 
mon heritage.  The  peoples  have  the 
same  aspirations  after  liberty,  and  the 
political,  social  and  industrial  organi- 
zations are  on  similar  lines,  all  mov- 
ing along  the  same  path  and  with  the 
same  end  in  view.  Our  art  and  archi- 
tecture have  the  same  classic  back- 
ground, the  like  Gothic  and  Renais- 
sance features  with  the  same  modern 
adaptions,  for  our  students  study  in 
the  same  schools  and  use  the  same 
models,  and  gain  in  a  kindred  atmo- 
sphere the  same  inspiration.  Science 
too  overleaps  boundaries  and  unites 
its  votaries  in  the  great  Republic  of 
Truth,  so  that  our  universities  are 
cosmopolitan  in  the  true  sense,  and 
nationality  is  regarded  neither  in  stu- 
dent nor  professor.  Add  to  all  this 
the  intimate  intercourse,  the  crowds 
which  cross  the  ocean  east  and  west, 
and  the  mingling  of  blood  through  in- 

21 


Cbe  Spirit  of  tbeHDriem 


termarriages,  so  that  no  race  is  pure 
or  without  its  tinctures  of  all  the 
others,  and  we  may  well  think  that 
the  differences  are  less  than  the  agree- 
ments, and  that  Americans,  English- 
men, Germans,  Frenchmen  and  Ital- 
ians are  one,  joint  heirs  to  a  common 
heritage,  united  in  a  vigorous  present, 
and  in  the  hope  of  a  still  more  glori- 
ous future.  Surely  one  might  set  forth 
with  ease  what  is  the  "genius"  which 
constitutes  the  "spirit"  of  the  West. 
But  with  the  East  how  great  the 
difference !  What  has  India  in  common 
with  China,  or  either  with  Japan? 
There  is  no  common  history  nor  law 
nor  social  organization  nor  religion, — 
with  Buddhism  the  only  exception, — 
so  that  no  interracial  consciousness 
is  realized.  To  the  vast  majority  of 
these  populations  the  thought  of  one- 
ness has  never  occurred,  for  Asia  has 
never  been  one  in  war  or  peace.  Only 
in  our  day  by  the  reflex  influence  of 
Europe  are  Orientals  comingto  recog- 

22 


Cbe  American  ipoint 


nizea  certain  solidarity.  How  then  can 
we  speak  of  a  "  spirit  of  Asia"  at  all 
as  distinguished  from  the  "spirit"  of 
Africa  or  of  Europe? 
The  question  suggests  its  answer. 
Asia  is  not  like  Europe,  nor  like  Af- 
rica. There  is  at  least  a  certain  unity 
of  contrast.  None  takes  the  one  for 
the  other.  It  is  said  that  Asiatics  un- 
derstand each  other  at  once  in  a  fash- 
ion that  is  impossible  to  Europeans 
and  Asiatics.  All  Europeans  are  "for- 
eigners" from  Constantinople  to  the 
Pacific,  but  all  Asiatics  are  in  a  sense 
at  home  in  whatever  part  of  this  broad 
domain  they  wander,  as  we  are  at 
home  even  in  the  remoter  parts  of 
Europe.  We  know  too  in  a  general 
way  what  we  mean  when  we  speak 
of  Asiatic  customs,  government,  art 
and  things  in  general,  and  we  never 
misplace  the  adjectives  European,  Af- 
rican, Asiatic.  Without  attempting 
yet  more  precise  definition,  possibly 
we  may  put  Africa  for  barbarism,  Asia 

23 


Cfje  Spirit  of  t6e£Dtiem 


for  stagnant  civilization,  Europe  for 
progress.  Such  definitions  are  not  of 
much  value,  but  they  make  a  starting 
place.  Africa  produces  no  great  civili- 
zation, as  it  was  in  the  beginning  so 
it  remains,  and  all  its  glories  are  from 
without,  its  spots  and  periods  of  civ- 
ilization due  to  the  presence  of  foreign 
peoples,  with  some  periods  of  the 
Egyptian  kingdom  as  a  doubtful  ex- 
ception. But  India,  China  and  Japan 
were  civilized  empires  when  our  fa- 
thers were  barbarians.  They  have  pro- 
duced all  the  elements  of  civiliza- 
tion, highly  developed  religious  and 
ethical  teachings,  complex  systems  of 
laws,  refined  philosophies,  magnificent 
architecture  and  art  and  literature. 
Long,  long  ago  they  reached  the 
stage  our  ancestors  slowly  and  labori- 
ously attained  millenniums  after  in 
part  through  the  aid  of  the  ancient  civ- 
ilization of  the  East.  But  the  East  has 
stood  still  so  long  that  it  has  come  to 
identify  its  civilization  with  the  laws 
24 


C6e  American  Point 


of  nature  and  to  think  it  as  immov- 
able and  as  unimprovable.  Man  with 
all  his  work  becomes  a  part  of  nature, 
and  like  it  he  is  subject  to  Fate. 
We  have  thus  a  common  feature,  the 
immemorial  character  of  Eastern  civ- 
ilization, its  early  maturity  and  its  com- 
parative immobility.  In  this  we  must 
not  include  Japan,  as  in  many  other 
respects  also  it  is  in  a  category  by  it- 
self; but  the  beginnings  of  the  other 
two  peoples  are  wholly  lost  in  antiquity. 
How  long  ago  were  China  and  India 
already  civilized?  Frankly  we  do  not 
know.  Perhaps  we  are  on  historic 
ground  when  we  go  back  to  the  tenth 
or  twelfth  century  before  Christ.  At 
that  early  date  the  gaze  of  some  im- 
mortal visitant  to  earth  would  have 
been  attracted  to  Babylonia  and  to 
Egypt,  to  India  and  to  China.  Africa, 
save  Egypt,  then  as  now  would  have 
been  in  darkness,  Europe  would  have 
been  without  form  and  void  excepting 
possibly  some  stirrings  where  the  glory 

25 


Cbe  Spirit  of  tbeHDrfent 


of  Greece  was  to  be,  but  already  China 
on  a  smaller  scale  would  have  shown 
the  same  features  as  to-day,  and  India 
would  have  revealed  in  germ  what  re- 
mains in  old  age.  Were  our  visitor  to 
return  in  this  twentieth  century  A.  D., 
after  three  thousand  years,  he  would 
feel  at  home  in  China  and  in  India;  Af- 
rica would  be  repulsive  as  before,  Eu- 
rope transformed  and  America  dis- 
covered. 

We  understand  why  our  South  Eu- 
ropean ancestors  of  the  time  of  the 
Christian  era  did  not  feel  the  difference 
between  East  and  West  as  we  feel  it, 
for  there  was  no  such  difference.  Sub- 
stantially all  then  stood  on  a  level.  But 
while  the  East  has  remained  content, 
the  West  has  moved  on.  So  far  we  are 
perhaps  on  solid  ground,  but  antiquity 
and  stagnation  do  not  mean  very 
much.  Can  we  find  other  indications  of 
unity  in  India  and  China,  characteris- 
tics comparable  to  those  enumerated 
as  constituting  European  oneness? 
26 


C6e  ametican  l^otnt  of  tfrieto 

The  noteworthy  fact,  first  of  all,  as  in 
Europe  so  in  Asia,  is  religion.  If  we  are 
to  find  a  genuine  oneness  in  the  con- 
tents of  consciousness  it  will  be  here. 
For  Buddhism  has  been  largely  pre- 
dominant in  the  three  empires  alike. 
The  Indian  religion  was  made  the  state 
religion  of  China  in  the  first  century 
of  the  Christian  era,  and  it  became  the 
state  religion  of  Japan  six  centuries 
later.  This  has  profound  significance. 
Notwithstanding  all  our  efforts,  no 
great  Asiatic  people  has  accepted 
Christianity.  They  seem  inaccessible 
to  its  powers  as  nations.  But  the  great- 
est Asiatic  nations  yielded  readily  to 
Buddhism  without  the  need  of  organ- 
ized missionary  societies  or  a  vast 
propagandism.  With  it  went  the  art, 
the  philosophy  and  many  of  the  social 
customs  of  India.  India  became  a  far- 
away, dim,  holy  land  to  the  peoples 
north  and  east,  so  that  a  certain  his- 
toric and  continental  consciousness 
was  created.  No  other  positive  insti- 

27 


C6e  Spirit  of  tbe  SDrtent 


tution  is  comparable  to  this  as  a  bond 
of  union. 

Yet  after  all  it  is  not  comparable  to 
the  unity  effected  by  Christianity  in 
the  West.  There  was  nothing  like  the 
Crusades  which  gave  Europe  first  its 
full  sense  of  oneness,  nor  like  the  all- 
embracing  organization  of  the  Church 
of  Rome.  Shortly  after  Buddhism  won 
China  it  lost  importance  in  India,  and 
finally  entirely  died  out  of  the  land  of 
its  birth.  Nor  even  in  the  height  of  its 
powerwas  there  more  than  the  merest 
fraction  of  the  amount  of  intercourse 
which  made  for  centuries  the  Catholic 
Church  the  most  homogeneous  and 
powerful  organization  on  earth.  Bud- 
dhism, moreover,  after  awhile  decayed 
in  China,  and  later  still  in  Japan.  In 
these  empires  educated  men  renounced 
it,  and  it  became  the  religion  of  the 
ignorant  and  the  superstitious,  ceas- 
ing to  influence  further  development. 

But  there  is  a  unity  deeper  than  this  af- 
forded by  Buddhism,  something  which 
28 


Cfte  ametican  point  of  Bieto 

underlies  Buddhism  itself,  and  which 
separates  profoundly  East  from  West. 
I  have  said  above  that  one  may  trans- 
late religious  terms  unhesitatingly  into 
all  the  languages  of  Europe.  But  we 
cannot  so  translate  Christian  terms 
into  Asiatic  tongues.  The  missiona- 
ries after  generations  of  debate  can- 
not agree  as  to  the  proper  word  for 
God  in  Chinese.  This  indicates  a  fun- 
damental difference  in  the  way  of  look- 
ing at  the  universe,  and  abstract  as  it 
may  seem,  a  few  words  must  be  given 
to  this  subject  or  we  shall  not  make 
a  beginning  in  our  effort  to  understand 
the  spirit  of  the  East. 
Europeans  think  of  this  universe  as 
created  by  God  out  of  nothing  some 
six  thousand  years  ago.  Man  is  God's 
child,  made  in  God's  image,  with  an 
immortal  soul  and  a  destiny  of  pain 
or  suffering  according  to  his  deeds  and 
faith.  Thus  immense  emphasis  is  put  on 
the  personality  of  God  and  man,  while 
the  world  has  been  of  secondary  impor- 

29 


Cbe  Spirit  of  tbe  fiDriem 


tance.  So  it  has  been  in  the  thoughts 
of  Christendom  for  a  thousand  years, 
and  other  ideas  are  slowly  displacing 
some  of  these  onlynow  in  our  own  day, 
and  however  our  thoughts  of  theworld 
change,  our  estimate  of  the  supreme 
value  of  personality  remains.  But  to 
the  Asiatic  all  is  different.  The  uni- 
verse with  its  fixed  laws  and  its  resist- 
less fate  is  the  ultimate  fact.  It  exists 
from  everlasting  to  everlasting.  It  goes 
on  and  on  in  ever-repeating  cycles.  It 
comes  from  chaos,  assumes  definite 
form,  continues  for  a  while,  returns  to 
chaos,  and  repeats  the  round  worlds 
without  end.  Man  is  a  part  of  this  pro- 
cess, as  are  the  gods  themselves,  the 
whole  an  organism  with  men  and  gods 
as  incidents  in  its  mighty  movement. 
Possibly  the  vastness  of  Asia,  which 
overpowers  man,  has  produced  this  re- 
sult. In  India  the  climate  conquers, 
and  none  can  resist  it.  The  individual 
comes  to  a  quick  maturity,  passes  into 
an  indolent  middle  life,  and  sinks  with- 
30 


C6e  American  point 


out  regret  into  old  age.  Englishmen 
avoid  this  only  by  short  terms  of  ser- 
vice, by  frequent  vacations  in  more 
stimulating  atmospheres,  and  by  send- 
ing their  children  home  to  England 
at  an  early  age.  Nature  is  at  once  too 
prolific  and  too  terrible  ;  too  prolific  it 
yields  enough  for  man  without  calling 
for  strenuous  endeavor;  too  terrible 
it  teaches  him  that  his  utmost  labor 
is  impotent  before  its  vast  calamities. 
China,  it  is  true,  has  not  thus  con- 
quered man  ;  its  climate  does  not  ener- 
vate, nor  its  mountains  appall,  yet  its 
long  isolation,  the  vastness  of  its  do- 
main and  the  immensity  of  its  popula- 
tion have  produced  something  of  the 
same  effect.  To  go  through  the  com- 
mon round,  to  accomplish  the  daily 
task,  to  live  as  the  parents  lived,  is  all 
that  one  can  fairly  ask.  And  beyond 
this  there  is  no  aspiration,  and  while 
individuals  are  ambitious  of  achieving 
success,  for  the  race  there  comes  no 
vision  of  a  better  time  to  come.  Such 


C6e  Spirit  of  tfte  €)rient 


a  want  of  progress  is  not  surprising, 
for  it  is  man's  normal  state.  Here  with 
ourselves  it  is  only  the  few  who  con- 
tribute to  the  advance  of  civilization. 
The  majority  are  content.  Let  this  con- 
tentment, which  is  akin  to  despair, 
take  possession  of  a  race  and  fatalism 
is  the  certain  result.  It  is  only  where 
men  think  of  God  as  Father  that  it  can 
be  escaped,  or  where  they  believe  they 
have  discovered  a  scientific  method 
which  will  enable  them  to  control  na- 
ture. 

With  such  conceptions  of  nature  and 
man  it  is  not  surprising  that  history  in 
its  true  sense  does  not  exist.  The  Hin- 
dus are  notoriously  deficient  in  his- 
toric interest.  In  China  there  are  re- 
cords enough,  and  of  two  kinds, — mere 
annals  of  the  past,  dry  and  without  hu- 
man interest ;  or  ethical,  the  past  made 
to  enforce  by  its  events  the  teachings 
of  the  Sages.  Real  history  has  to  do 
with  progress,  with  the  successive  em- 
bodiment of  high  ideals  in  society. 
32 


€be  amertcan  Point  of  Bieto 

That  makes  the  interest  of  the  Euro- 
pean story.  In  Asia  there  have  been 
endless  wars,  but  these  havebeen  mere 
struggles  of  king  against  king,  or  of 
race  against  race,  resulting  in  no  con- 
stitutional development  and  leaving 
the  people  unchanged  whoever  won. 
Hence  it  is  impossible  to  get  inter- 
ested in  the  story,  as  it  is  intolerably 
tedious,  without  real  movement  or  re- 
sult. 

The  internal  story  has  been  like  the 
external.  Great  empires,  like  the  Mug- 
hal, have  arisen,  magnificent,  potent, 
luxurious,  sometimes  liberal  and  intel- 
lectual. But  the  same  result  has  al- 
ways followed,  and  soon  the  splendor 
of  the  capital  has  caused  intolerable 
misery  among  the  people.  Or,  as  in 
China,  conquest  has  introduced  merely 
a  new  set  of  rulers,  who  in  turn  have 
been  transformed  into  the  likeness  of 
the  people  they  have  conquered. 

This  want  of  development  has  been 
the  result  doubtless  of  the  same  causes 

33 


Cfce  Spirit  of  t&e  HDrient 


which  have  produced  the  religious 
views  already  described.  The  people 
have  been  content  with  tyranny  as  a 
part  of  the  inevitable  nature  of  things, 
content  even  with  misery,  since  no 
way  of  escape  appeared.  Everything 
is,  nothing  becomes.  All  has  been 
fixed.  That  rich  should  be  rich,  and 
that  poor  should  be  poor,  that  kings 
should  rule  and  subjects  obey,  that 
the  great  events  of  life  and  death 
should  be  beyond  control,  and  the 
small  events  of  life,  our  calling,  our 
etiquette,  our  clothes,  our  food,  should 
be  settled  beyond  dispute, — all  this 
and  more  is  a  part  of  the  unending 
round  which  is  to-day  as  it  was  in  the 
days  of  our  fathers,  and  so  it  shall  be  to 
the  remotest  generation  of  those  who 
come  after  us.  Hence  all  go  on  without 
challenge  or  remonstrance,  and  it  is 
only  when  there  is  some  intolerable 
burden  newly  imposed  by  political 
tyranny  that  there  is  an  uprising,  and 
this  is  not  in  the  interest  of  a  new  or- 
34 


€6e  american  Point  of  t&ieto 

der  of  society,  but  in  an  attempted 
easement  of  the  old. 

Science  represents  the  same  spirit. 
There  have  been  endless  speculation 
and  study,  but  they  have  expended 
themselves  upon  words  and  airy  no- 
things. So  science  has  never  been  for 
the  understanding  of  the  physical 
world  that  man  may  master  it.  Meta- 
physics instead  of  physics  sums  up 
the  situation.  Thought  has  been  so 
refined  that  ordinary  men  could  not 
grasp  it,  and  the  masses  have  been 
left  to  ignorance  as  to  servitude.  With 
religion,  too,  the  same  result  has  ob- 
tained. In  its  higher  conceptions  it 
has  been  the  exclusive  possession  of 
the  few,  and  its  end  has  been  escape 
from  the  round  of  the  weary  world, 
but  both  method  and  end  have  been 
too  refined  for  the  multitude,  who  are 
left  to  superstition  and  debasing  idol- 
atry. 

Thus  do  we  of  the  West  judge  the 
spirit  of  the  East.  It  knows  no  pro- 

35 


Cbe  Spirit  of  t&e  HDrient 


gress,  for  its  God  is  Fate.  To  some  Fate 
gives  power  and  wealth  and  long  life 
and  happiness,  to  some  it  gives  toil 
and  sorrow  and  superstition.  Let  each 
stand  in  his  own  place,  knowing  that 
struggle  but  increases  sorrow.  Science 
is  transcendental  metaphysics,  reli- 
gion is  withdrawal  from  the  world, 
government  is  by  the  strongest  and 
in  the  interest  of  the  governors. 

Our  description  is  true,  we  are  con- 
vinced, and  yet  unjust.  It  is  not  the 
whole  truth,  for  it  produces  a  sense 
of  sadness  and  depression  which  is 
unfair  and  too  all-embracing.  Let  us 
remember  that  the  great  drama  of 
life  is  the  same  with  East  and  West 
alike,  and  that  the  joys  which  make 
up  so  large  a  part  of  our  lives  are 
theirs  also.  There  as  here,  the  com- 
mon talk,  the  common  aspiration,  the 
common  grief  and  the  common  happi- 
ness are  much  the  same.  Could  one 
be  gifted  with  the  gift  of  tongues  and 
with  an  invisible  and  all-pervading 
36 


C6e  American  Point 


presence,  he  would  be  astonished  to 
notice  how  exactlyalike  is  nine  tenths 
of  the  talk  in  all  the  regions  of  the 
earth,  —  weather,  and  crops,  and  money, 
and  trade,  and  sickness,  and  birth, 
and  death,  and  marriage,  and  food, 
and  gossip,  furnish  its  substance  in 
India,  in  China  and  in  Japan,  as  in 
Europe  and  America. 
The  Spirit  of  the  East  has  brought 
forth  many  noble  sons  of  exalted 
lives,—  statesmen,  and  poets,  and  war- 
riors, and  law-givers,  and  holy  men. 
In  this,  too,  the  West  has  no  mono- 
poly. In  these  great  representatives 
we  must  look  for  the  embodiment  of 
the  spirit.  In  Asia  the  characteristic 
is  retiracy  from  the  world,  a  certain 
aloofness  of  soul,  an  indifference  to 
outward  state  and  fortune,  and  a  con- 
viction that  salvation  is  in  the  mind 
only.  There  is  an  exaltation  above  the 
heat  and  struggle  of  the  world  which 
charms  many  Occidentals,  all  of  us, 
perhaps,  in  certain  moods.  Many  men 

37 


Cbe  Spirit  of  tbe  SDtient 


from  the  West  enter  into  this  spirit 
and  come  to  prefer  the  retiracy  and 
meditation  and  calm  of  the  East  to 
the  bustle  and  toil  and  noise  of  our 
modern  progress,  for  the  real  differ- 
ence between  East  and  West  is  not 
of  longitude  but  of  habit  and  cast  of 
mind. 

But  our  admirationand  condemnation 
are  of  little  moment.  The  East  is  too 
great  a  factor  in  the  world  to  care  for 
our  judgment.  It  does  not  ask  the  con- 
sent of  the  West  that  it  may  exist, 
for  the  West  is  no  nearer  God  than  is 
itself,  nor  have  we  any  peculiar  title 
to  the  earth.  So  our  task  is  not  to 
criticise,  but  to  attempt  to  understand 
these  far-away  peoples,  our  brothers 
of  a  common  humanity. 


II 
C6e  Asiatic  Point 


II 
agfatfc  ffoint  of  Bf  eta 


HE  traveller  wearies  of  the 
East,  with  its  discomforts, 
its  squalor,  its  beggars  and 
its  pride.  There  is  little  to 
see,  he  thinks,  after  the  first  pictur- 
esqueness  has  worn  off,  and  much  to 
endure.  Excepting  again  Japan,  where 
in  all  Asia  shall  one  be  made  fairly 
comfortable?  It  is  only  where  the  Oc- 
cidental has  gone  that  there  is  a  mea- 
sure of  decent  accommodation.  The 
roads  are  not  worthy  of  the  name,  the 
inns  are  abodes  of  misery,  the  means 
of  transportation  are  primitive.  Every- 
thing is  disorganized,  behind  time  and 
listless,  so  that  the  whole  continent 
appears  discouraged  and  systemless. 
The  governments  are  at  once  ineffi- 
cient and  burdensome,  and  the  peo- 
ple either  arrogant  or  servile.  They 
lie  and  cheat,  and  are  generally  con- 
temptible and  untrustworthy.  Nothing 

41 


C6e  Spirit  of  tfie  SDtient 


is  done  at  the  right  time  nor  in  the 
right  way.  This  at  least  is  our  impres- 
sion after  reading  wearisomely  book 
after  book  written  on  India  and  China, 
after  conversing  with  residents,  and 
visiting  the  lands  and  observing  their 
effect  upon  travellers.  Said  Lord  El- 
gin of  the  Chinese  diplomatists,  "They 
yield  nothing  to  reason  and  everything 
to  force,  "and  another  distinguished  re- 
presentative of  Great  Britain  declared 
the  East  a  sad  training-school  for  di- 
plomatists, since  there  are  only  two 
classes,  bullies  and  bullied.  These  ut- 
terances express  the  common  notion, 
and  it  is  as  prevalent  among  mer- 
chants as  among  officials.  The  ordi- 
nary mortal  comes  to  feel  that  he  is 
surrounded  with  trickery,  and  that  he 
can  best  get  his  way  by  force.  So  as 
the  great  diplomatists  bully  govern- 
ments with  fleets  and  armies,  private 
citizens  bully  individuals  with  oaths 
and  fists.  I  once  heard  an  English 
planter  from  Ceylon  complain  of  his 
42 


€6e  Asiatic  Point 


government  there,  "It  is  ruining  the 
natives,  for  things  have  got  to  such  a 
pass  that  one  may  be  hauled  before  a 
magistrate  merely  for  knocking  down 
his  servant!"  How  many  natives  have 
been  knocked  down,  and  yet  have 
fawned  upon  their  assailant  ?  Who  can 
forget  the  thrill  of  horror  with  which 
he  first  saw  (in  Cairo  it  was  for  me) 
officials  using  whips  on  the  backs  of 
their  fellow  countrymen? 

No  wonder  that  travellers  find  a  few 
weeks  enough  for  India  or  China,  trav- 
ellers we  mean  as  distinct  from  schol- 
ars who  will  find  a  lifetime  all  too  short 
for  either.  The  globe-trotter  wearies 
of  tombs  and  temples,  and  comes  to 
think  "Oriental  magnificence"  mythi- 
cal. He  finds  its  remains,  indeed,  at 
Agra  and  Delhi,  and  profusion,  dis- 
play and  extravagance  in  the  capitals 
of  the  native  princes.  But  with  it  all 
there  is  a  lack  of  finish  and  of  atten- 
tion to  detail,  so  that  the  effect  is  not 
pleasing.  So  it  is  in  Peking;  the  palace, 

43 


C&e  Spirit  of  t6e  flDnent 


opened  at  last  to  foreign  eyes,  con- 
tained, like  all  Oriental  palaces,  many 
articles  of  beauty,  but  in  such  confu- 
sion and  with  so  much  of  disorder  and 
of  positive  filth  that  the  total  effect 
was  repulsive.  Gradually  it  becomes 
apparent  that  the  East  is  not  the  home 
of  splendor  nor  of  wealth.  Either  the 
ancient  tradition  was  the  exaggera- 
tion of  travellers'  tales,  or  more  likely 
it  was  the  effect  of  our  comparative 
barbarism.  So  our  good  American  con- 
cludes that  his  pretty  little  town  in  the 
United  States  is  "good  enough  for 
him,"  and  that  we  have  more  things 
worth  seeing  than  have  all  the  multi- 
tudes of  mankind  in  the  storied  Ori- 
ent. Who  that  has  walked  the  streets 
of  Jerusalem,  or  stopped  in  a  Chinese 
inn,  or  observed  the  plague-stricken 
condition  of  some  village  community 
of  India,  can  fail  to  sympathize  with 
him?  And  if  one  find  here  and  there 
an  exception,  the  home  of  some  rich 
merchant  in  China,  a  garden  of  tran- 
44 


C6e  Viatic  Point 


scendent  beauty  in  India,  some  Ori- 
ental mansion  with  blank  wall  to  the 
street  but  luxury  within  in  the  Mo- 
hammedan domains,  he  wonders  the 
more  that  a  people  who  can  develop 
here  and  there  an  oasis  will  permit  the 
wilderness  elsewhere  to  prevail. 
Our  straightforward  American,  ac- 
customed to  streets  crossing  at  right 
angles,  lined  with  trees,  with  pretty 
houses  equipped  with  every  comfort, 
longs  to  bring  some  of  the  "natives" 
to  the  United  States  for  an  object 
lesson  that  will  revolutionize  their 
modes  of  thought  and  life.  He  over- 
looks the  fact  that  there  are  object 
lessons  closer  at  hand,  in  the  foreign 
settlements  in  Bombay  and  Hong- 
kong and  Shanghai,  and  yet  that  the 
native  life  goes  on  as  before.  The  av- 
erage Oriental  seems  impervious  to 
attacks  whether  as  traveller  in  the 
West  or  as  an  observer  of  foreign 
ways  at  home.  Even  after  years  amid 
all  our  modern  improvements  he  goes 

45 


C6e  Spirit  of  tjje  flDrtem 


home  unchanged,  to  cast  his  new 
habits  at  once,  and  to  return  to  the 
easy-going  customs  of  the  past.  The 
new  does  not  appear  worth  its  cost  to 
him. 

An  Asiatic  who  had  lived  in  diplo- 
matic circles  in  Paris  declared  that  the 
game  was  not  worth  the  candle, — the 
endless  engagements,  the  notes  which 
must  be  answered,  the  formal  parties 
and  dinners  and  public  functions.  His 
own  ideal  was  a  garden  and  a  man- 
sion where  one  could  do  as  he  pleased, 
where  one  visited  his  friends  at  his 
own  desire,  and  entertained  or  not  as 
the  whim  seized  him,  where  there 
was  no  mail,  and  no  newspapers,  and 
no  need  for  a  calendar  or  a  notebook. 
Our  civilization  was  so  filled  with  ma- 
chinery that  it  destroyed  repose  and 
charm  and  the  true  taste  of  life.  We 
hasten  and  have  so  much  to  do;  why 
not  enjoy  now  what  we  have?  Time 
hastens  away;  why  use  it  all  in  pre- 
paring to  live?  Besides,  after  all,  what 
46 


C6e  Asiatic  Point 


are  these  reforms?  Take  the  world  as 
it  comes,  you  cannot  change  it. 

In  some  such  fashion  the  Oriental  re- 
turns our  criticism.  Yet  all  summaries 
are  unjust,  for  there  is  no  such  thing 
as  "  Oriental  opinion."  We  have  possi- 
bly an  average  American  opinion  as  to 
the  East,  but  we  have  many  Ameri- 
cans who  think  this  average  judgment 
"Philistine"  and  prefer  Eastern  ways 
of  life  and  thought.  So  in  the  East  there 
are  men  who  frankly  admire  the  West 
and  would  reform  the  East  upon  its 
model.  But  the  larger  part  as  with  us 
are  indifferent,  not  taking  the  trouble 
to  form  an  opinion,  and  the  larger  part 
of  the  thinking  minority  are  frankly 
hostile.  Between  the  two  extremes  are 
all  degrees  of  admiration  and  antipa- 
thy. Besides,  the  ordinary  Oriental  is 
not  given  to  free  expression  of  his  sen- 
timents, and  he  is  as  untrained  in  ob- 
servation as  he  is  unwilling  in  expres- 
sion. Hence  many  of  the  judgments 
of  East  and  West  most  often  quoted 

47 


C6e  Spirit  of  tfie  SDtient 


from  Orientals  are  from  men  who  have 
been  trained  in  Europe  and  America, 
and  who  in  their  criticism  reflect  their 
adopted  point  of  view.  If  we  attempt, 
then,  to  learn  what  the  East  really 
thinks  of  us  we  shall  be  cautious,  and 
rest  content  with  setting  forth  simply 
what  some  Orientals  say  of  us. 

First  let  us  hear  the  language  of  thor- 
oughgoing detestation.  For  such  ex- 
pressions we  must  go  to  men  of  posi- 
tion and  of  education.  The  common 
people  for  the  greater  part  neither  un- 
derstand nor  care  about  these  things. 
My  first  quotation  is  from  Japan.  Its 
writer  was  a  good  representative  of 
the  old  regime,  scholar,  soldier,  gen- 
tleman, patriot.  He  had  the  sincerity 
of  the  martyr,  and  he  perished  because 
of  his  impassioned  opposition  to  the 
course  of  the  government  in  opening 
Japan  to  foreign  intercourse.  He  died 
in  1862,  and  the  little  book  from  which 
I  quote  was  printed  in  December,  1857. 
It  is  a  tirade  against  Western  science, 
48 


Cbe  astatic  IPoint 


and  its  contention  is  that  our  learning 
is  superficial,  while  the  Chinese  is  pro- 
found and  of  the  heart  : 

"Followers  of  the  Western  learning 
shamelessly  say  that  the  West  knows 
the  laws  of  the  universe.  They  are 
rebels  who  exhibit  a  forged  seal  of 
state  and  gather  a  vile  rabble.  True 
disciples  of  Confucius  and  Mencius 
should  raise  their  banner,  expose  the 
counterfeit  and  destroy  these  false 
scholars.  The  learning  of  the  West 
knows  only  the  outward,  and  deals 
with  the  seen,  it  cannot  understand  fun- 
damental principles.  Foreigners  are 
minute  in  researches,  and  careful  in 
measurements,  but  they  do  not  under- 
stand that  the  true  'Way'  of  the  uni- 
verse is  benevolence,  righteousness, 
loyalty  and  truth.  Hence  their  learn- 
ing cannot  make  them  virtuous.  Their 
astronomy  is  wonderful  in  its  mea- 
surements, but  it  destroys  reverence 
for  Heaven,  and  makes  them  think  it 
a  dead  material  thing.  They  do  not 

49 


Cbe  Spirit  of  the  Orient 


know  that  Heaven  and  man  are  one, 
and  that  the  essential  nature  of  both 
is  righteousness.  They  are  like  chil- 
dren who  should  measure  carefully 
the  features  of  their  father's  body,  and 
care  nothing  for  his  heart.  Besides,  all 
that  is  essential  is  in  our  own  ancient 
books  which  contain  the  root  of  the 
matter.  Why  neglect  it  and  go  to  the 
foreigners  for  the  leaves  and  branches? 
The  foreigners  do  not  know  these 
books,  and  are  like  the  brutes  in  con- 
sequence, and  alas !  our  own  scholars, 
misled  by  appearances,  forsake  the 
truth  and  go  astray.  Heaven  is  high, 
exalted,  beyond  our  little  efforts  to  ex- 
tol or  belittle  it,  beyond  our  praise  or 
blame.  Would  we  benefit  it,  we  can- 
not; would  we  kill  it,  it  is  beyond  our 
reach.  Only  as  its  'Way'  is  followed 
and  its  laws  observed  can  it  be  served. 
Let  each  one  die  for  duty,  there  is 
naught  else  that  one  can  do." 
This  sincere  patriot  and  philosopher 
thus  rejects  Western  learning  because 
So 


C6e  astatic  Point  of  tfrieto 

of  its  unworthiness.  It  may,  indeed,  he 
thinks,  help  out  the  affairs  of  man's 
outward  life,  but  it  does  not  minister 
to  the  moral  and  the  spiritual.  We  can 
readily  understand  his  position  as  we 
remember  how  in  the  West  the  ad- 
vances of  physical  science  have  been 
resisted  in  the  supposed  interests  of 
religion.  As  our  leaders  have  talked  of 
" science  falsely  so  called"  under  the 
impression  that  it  opposed  the  revela- 
tion of  God,  so  it  is  in  the  East.  It  has 
been  the  most  sincere  and  believing 
men  who  have  been  chief  in  the  oppo- 
sition. Dr.  Arthur  Smith  expresses  the 
same  opinion  in  writing  of  the  Chinese 
literati:  "To  suppose  that  anything 
could  be  added  to  their  wisdom  is  as 
arrogant  an  assumption  to  the  Ortho- 
dox Confucianist  as  it  would  be  to  a 
Christian  for  one  to  claim  that  an  ap- 
pendix to  the  New  Testament  is  to  be 
looked  forwhich  shall  be  of  equal  value 
and  authority  with  its  twenty-seven 
books."  Such  is  the  convinced  judg- 


Cbe  Spirit  of  tbe  Orient 


ment  too  of  the  Mohammedan  world 
as  to  the  Koran  and  of  the  Hindus  as 
to  their  sacred  books.  Thus,  to  the 
trained  and  educated  "natives"  of 
these  lands  our  learning  is  of  trifling 
import  compared  with  the  deeper  wis- 
dom of  their  sages  and  saints. 

This  notion  that  our  superiority  is 
physical  and  material  while  theirs  is 
moral  and  spiritual  is  widespread  and 
deep-rooted.  A  distinguished  repre- 
sentative of  American  Christianity  on 
a  visit  to  India  repelled  the  natives  by 
insisting  upon  the  advanced  position, 
the  power  and  wealth  of  the  Christian 
nations.  "Granting  all  you  claim,"  they 
replied,  uwhat  has  it  to  do  with  reli- 
gion?" This  idea  was  expressed  at  the 
Parliament  of  Religions  in  Chicago  by 
the  Chinese  secretary  of  the  Chinese 
legation  in  Washington : 

"What  Christ  means  by  calling  at- 
tention to  the  lilies  of  the  field  has  a 
parallel  in  the  Confucian  doctrine  of 
doing  one's  daily  duties  and  awaiting 
52 


Cfte  astatic  Point  of  tfrteto 

the  call  of  fate.  The  object  of  all  this 
is  to  teach  men  to  put  down  the  de- 
sires of  the  flesh,  and  to  preserve  the 
moral  sense  which  is  inherent  in  hu- 
man nature  in  a  state  of  activity.  The 
meaning  of  the  above-cited  passage  is 
clear  enough  from  the  Chinese  as  well 
as  the  English  version  of  the  Bible. 
Missionaries  in  China,  however,  often 
contend  in  their  controversial  writ- 
ings that  the  Christian  nations  of  the 
West  owe  their  material  well-being 
and  political  ascendency  to  their  reli- 
gion. It  is  difficult  to  see  upon  what 
this  argument  is  based.  When  teach- 
ers of  religion  speak  of  material  pros- 
perity and  political  ascendency  in  such 
commendable  terms,  they  in  fact  turn 
away  from  teaching  religion  to  propa- 
gating such  theories  of  government  as 
were  advocated  by  Kwan-tz,  Shang-tz 
and  Tao  Chukung.  It  is  the  end  of  ev- 
ery government,  indeed,  to  strive  after 
material  prosperity  and  political  as- 
cendency. Christ,  however,  proposes 

53 


Cfce  Spirit  of  the  SDrient 


an  entirely  different  end,  which  is,  to 
seek  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.  He  cer- 
tainly did  not  hold  up  the  foreign  mas- 
ters that  were  exercising  supreme  po- 
litical control  over  his  own  country  at 
the  time  as  an  example  worthy  of  imi- 
tation."* 

Nor  are  such  expressions  from  the 
literati  only,  for  our  author  goes  on  to 
say: 

"  Missionaries  take  great  pleasure  in 
teaching  others  in  the  name  of  Christ 
that  after  death  they  may  hope  to  go 
to  Heaven,  but  the  people  of  the  East 
have  a  notion  that  after  death  the  soul 
descends  into  Hades.  When  I  was  at- 
tached to  the  Board  of  Punishment  at 
Lang  Chang,  I  often  had  opportunity 
to  examine  the  papers  relating  to  cases 
of  riot  against  missionaries  which  had 
been  sent  up  to  the  board  by  the  pro- 
vincial authorities.  I  frequently  came 
across  expressions  like  *I  prefer  to  go 

•"World's  Parliament  of  Religions,"  which  is  authority  also  for 
quotations  in  the  next  four  pages. 

54 


Cfte  astatic  ipoint  of  t&ieto 


to  Hades;  let  him  go  to  Heaven,'  used 
by  the  defendants  in  their  depositions. 
It  is  easy  to  infer  the  intense  bitter- 
ness of  their  hatred  from  this.  Those 
men  were  evidently  under  the  opinion 
that  they  were  writing  their  hostile 
feelings  against  Christ,  though  they 
knew  not  who  Christ  was. 

"Yet  it  is  not  entirely  unreasonable 
that  the  terrified  suspicion,  or  you 
may  say  superstition,  that  Christianity 
is  the  instrument  of  depredation,  is 
avowedly  or  unavowedly  aroused  in 
the  Oriental  mind  when  it  is  an  ad- 
mitted fact  that  some  of  the  most 
powerful  nations  of  Christendom  are 
gradually  encroaching  upon  the  Ori- 
ent." 

Alas!  It  is  "not  entirely  unreasona- 
ble," since  the  history  of  international 
discourse  has  been  a  history  of  aggres- 
sion, and  since  the  people  of  the  East 
have  come  to  believe  that  commer- 
cial exploitation  and  conquest  are  the 
chief  end  of  Western  governments. 

55 


Cbe  Spirit  of  tbe  HDrient 


In  India  also  we  find  the  claim  to  a 
higher  wisdom  and  a  more  truly  eth- 
ical life,  nor  is  there  any  reason  to 
doubt  its  sincerity.  This  is  the  way 
even  our  religious  activity  appears  to 
the  higher  minds  in  the  land  which  is 
so  wearisome  to  our  ordinary  traveller : 

"My  friend,  I  am  often  afraid,  I  con- 
fess, when  I  contemplate  the  condi- 
tion of  European  and  American  soci- 
ety, where  your  activities  are  so  man- 
ifold, your  work  so  extensive,  that 
you  are  drowned  in  it,  and  you  have 
little  time  to  consider  the  great  ques- 
tion of  regeneration,  of  personal  sanc- 
tification,  of  trial  and  judgment,  and 
of  acceptance  before  God.  That  is  the 
question  of  all  questions.  A  right  the- 
ological basis  may  lead  to  social  re- 
form, but  a  right  line  of  public  activity 
and  the  doing  of  good  is  bound  to 
lead  to  the  salvation  of  the  doer's  soul 
and  the  regeneration  of  public  men." 

"Thus  byinsight  into  the  immanence 
of  God's  spirit  in  nature,  thus  by  intro- 
56 


C6e  agiatlc  Point 


spection  into  the  fullness  of  the  divine 
presence  in  the  heart,  thus  by  raptur- 
ous and  loving  worship,  and  thus  by 
renunciation  and  self-surrender,  Asia 
has  learned  and  taught  wisdom,  prac- 
tised and  preached  contemplation, 
laid  down  rules  of  worship,  and  glori- 
fied the  righteousness  of  God. 

uln  the  West  you  observe,  watch 
and  act.  In  the  East  we  contemplate, 
commune,  and  suffer  ourselves  to  be 
carried  away  by  the  spirit  of  the  uni- 
verse. In  the  West  you  wrest  from 
nature  her  secrets,  you  conquer  her, 
she  makes  you  wealthy  and  prosper- 
ous, you  look  upon  her  as  your  slave, 
and  sometimes  fail  to  recognize  her 
sacredness.  In  the  East  nature  is  our 
eternal  sanctuary,  the  soul  is  our 
everlasting  temple,  and  the  sacred- 
ness  of  God's  creation  is  only  next  to 
the  sacredness  of  God  himself.  In  the 
West  you  love  equality,  you  respect 
man,  you  seek  justice.  In  the  East 
love  is  the  fulfillment  of  the  law,  we 

57 


C6e  Spirit 


have  hero  worship,  we  behold  God  in 
humanity.  In  the  West  you  establish 
the  moral  law,  you  insist  upon  pro- 
priety of  conduct,  you  are  governed 
by  public  opinion.  In  the  East  we 
aspire,  perhaps  vainly  aspire,  after 
absolute  self-conquest,  and  the  holi- 
ness which  makes  God  its  model.  In 
the  West  you  work  incessantly,  and 
your  work  is  your  worship.  In  the 
East  we  meditate  and  worship  for 
long  hours,  and  worship  is  our  work. 
Perhaps  one  day,  after  this  parliament 
has  achieved  its  success,  the  Western 
and  Eastern  men  will  combine  to 
support  each  other's  strength  and 
supply  each  other's  deficiencies.  And 
then  that  blessed  synthesis  of  human 
nature  shall  be  established  which  all 
prophets  have  foretold,  and  all  the 
devout  souls  have  sighed  for." 
Thus  is  set  over  against  our  claim 
to  a  higher  civilization  as  strong  a 
pretension  to  a  deeper  spirituality  and 
to  profounder  thought.  In  these  pas- 
58 


Cfre  Asiatic  Point  of  Bieto 

sages  just  quoted  India's  ideal  comes 
to  full  expression,  and  not  only  India's 
but  Asia's,  for  listen  to  a  native  of 
Japan  who  writes  English  equal  to 
that  of  our  Hindu  friend: 

"Asia  is  one.  The  Himalayas  divide 
only  to  accentuate  two  mighty  civili- 
zations, the  Chinese  with  its  commu- 
nism of  Confucius,  and  the  Indian  with 
its  individualism  of  the  Vedas.  But 
not  even  the  snowy  barriers  can  in- 
terrupt for  one  moment  that  broad 
expanse  of  love  for  the  Ultimate  and 
Universal,  which  is  the  common 
thought-inheritance  of  every  Asiatic 
race,  enabling  them  to  produce  all  the 
great  religions  of  the  world,  and  dis- 
tinguishing them  from  those  maritime 
peoples  of  the  Mediterranean  and  the 
Baltic,  who  love  to  dwell  on  the  par- 
ticular, and  to  search  out  the  means, 
not  the  end  of  life."* 

This  then  is  the  contrast :  the  West 
seeks  convenience,  contrivance,  com- 

*  "The  Ideals  of  the  East,"  Kakuzo  Okakura,  p.  i. 

59 


C&e  Spirit  of  t&eflDrtent 


fort,  the  victory  over  matter;  the  East 
seeks  after  the  Absolute,  God,  and  its 
victory  is  of  the  Spirit.  Man,  as  we 
have  already  said,  seems  overpowered 
by  nature  in  the  East,  but  he  attempts 
to  conquer  it  in  the  West.  It  is  at 
least  something  gained  if  we  recog- 
nize that  current  opinion  represents 
more  or  less  accurately  the  two  spir- 
its. It  is  true  that  the  ordinary  Amer- 
ican criticises  the  Orient  for  its  lack 
of  material  progress,  and  that  the  Ori- 
ental criticises  us  for  our  absorption 
in  these  things.  We  shall  not  attempt 
to  estimate  the  correctness  of  the 
criticism,  nor  to  judge  between  the 
two  estimates,  for  our  present  task  is 
merely  to  understand. 

But  surely,  our  American  interposes, 
there  can  be  no  dispute  as  to  the  ad- 
vantages of  cleanliness  over  filth,  of 
attractive  villages  over  slums,  and  in 
general  of  modern  methods  over  an- 
cient ways.  So  it  seems  to  us,  but  the 
East  will  not  readily  acknowledge  it. 
60 


C6e  aptotic  Point 


The  way  their  fathers  trod  is  their 
way.  Would  you  have  them  wiser  or 
better  than  their  revered  forefathers? 
So  tradition  and  custom  form  a  bar- 
rier which  is  almost  impenetrable. 
Take  sanitation,  for  instance;  one 
would  think  the  visitation  of  the  plague 
would  cause  all  to  flee  to  modern  sci- 
ence for  safety;  but  no!  the  natives 
of  Bombay  resisted  so  stoutly  the 
efforts  of  the  authorities  that  efforts 
at  control  were  given  up  and  the  ter- 
rible scourge  is  left  unchecked,  claim- 
ing in  one  year  more  than  a  million 
victims. 

A  missionary,  impressed  with  the 
inefficient  methods  of  agriculture,  un- 
improved since  the  days  of  Alexander 
the  Great,  tilled  a  plot  of  ground  in 
the  American  fashion,  with  results  far 
beyond  all  Indian  precedent.  But  none 
followed  his  example,  not  even  though 
he  imported  ploughs  and  offered  them 
for  sale  at  less  than  the  price  of  native 
ones.  The  people  could  not  see  that 

61 


Cbe  Spirit  of  tfce  Orient 


which  was  before  their  eyes,  and  as- 
cribed his  success  not  to  his  instru- 
ments but  to  some  occult  virtue  in 
him  as  a  foreigner.  The  weight  of  the 
past  is  too  heavy,  and  the  bondage  of 
custom  too  strong  for  emancipation 
to  win,  and  the  "native"  remains  un- 
convinced and  unimpressed.  It  is  nat- 
ural to  him  that  some  should  succeed 
and  others  fail,  and  his  own  lot  is  to 
submit  and  suffer. 

These  are  the  peasants,  and  in  India. 
Perhaps  they  do  not  represent  the 
spirit  of  Asia.  Take  another  example. 
A  distinguished  Chinese  nobleman 
represented  his  country  for  years  at 
the  court  of  St.  James,  and  finally  he 
wrote  his  impressions  for  an  Eng- 
lish review.  He  was  not  insensible  to 
the  position  of  Western  states  nor  to 
the  advantages  of  Western  civiliza- 
tion. But  after  all  what  should  one  do? 
The  conditions  in  China  are  so  finely 
balanced,  the  population  is  so  closely 
proportioned  to  the  means  of  liveli- 
62 


€6e  Asiatic  Point 


hood,  the  occupations  by  which  one 
may  gain  a  livelihood  are  so  preempted 
that  any  disturbance  in  economic  re- 
lations causes  death  to  thousands. 
To  build  a  railway  means  that  thou- 
sands of  carriers  shall  starve,  and  to 
introduce  machinery  is  to  deprive 
multitudes  of  all  chance  for  gaining  a 
livelihood.  Possibly,  in  the  end,  the 
country  will  gain  a  benefit,  but  who 
shall  venture  to  decree  the  misery  in- 
volved on  the  chance  of  helping  some 
future  generation?  Besides,  we  are  in 
the  hands  of  Fate  ;  centuries  ago  China 
was  as  much  ahead  of  Europe  as  the 
latter  now  is  ahead  of  Asia.  Possibly 
the  wheel  of  fate  may  turn  again  and 
the  future  see  once  more  the  lots  re- 
versed, and  if  not,  what  can  man  do 
against  the  resistless  currents  of  the 
universe? 

There  is  doubtless  another  side. 
Some  Asiatics  know  that  the  West 
is  not  wholly  immoral  and  greedy. 
Some,  too,  are  ready  to  agree  that  its 

63 


Cbe  Spirit  of  tbe  flDrient 


intercourse  with  Asia  has  taught  les- 
sons which  Asia  may  well  learn,  and 
conferred  benefits  which  should  excite 
gratitude.  Let  us  hear  this  other  side. 
Once  on  a  steamer  going  from  Co- 
lombo to  Bombay  I  met  two  Kulim 
Brahmans,  that  is,  men  of  the  highest 
caste  India  knows.  They  were  grad- 
uates of  the  University,  spoke  Eng- 
lish well,  and  knowing  that  I  was  an 
American,  spoke  their  minds  freely. 
This  was  the  substance  of  their  opin- 
ion as  to  their  English  rulers: 
Individual  Englishmen  we  dislike. 
They  are  proud  and  insulting  often. 
But  we  acknowledge  the  benefits  of 
English  rule.  It  gives  us  peace.  Were 
it  withdrawn  we  should  fly  at  once  at 
each  other's  throats  and  end  by  be- 
coming the  prey  of  Russia.  Then,  too, 
England  gives  us  justice.  In  the  past 
India  never  knew  it,  but  now  the 
foreign  judge  is  incorruptible,  and  so 
far  as  in  him  lies  does  equal  justice  to 
every  man.  This  of  itself  compensates 
64 


C6e  asiatic  IPoint 


for  all  the  annoyances  of  British  rule. 

This  is  not  a  solitary  judgment,  but 
is  held  by  many  intelligent  men.  It  is 
well  expressed  by  a  native  writer  in 
the  columns  of  the  "Indian  Nation,"  a 
paper  ably  conducted  and  most  appro- 
priately designated: 

"An  enlightened  administration  of 
justice,  especially  in  criminal  cases, 
religious  toleration,  liberty  of  the  press, 
liberty  of  holding  meetings  and  peti- 
tioning —  these  are  the  rights  which 
we  in  this  country  have  so  easily  ac- 
quired that  we  are  in  danger  of  under- 
valuing them.  We  have  secured  by  a 
few  strokes  of  the  pen  of  beneficent 
legislators  advantages  which  English- 
men have  had  in  their  own  country  to 
buy  with  their  blood."  * 

"It  is  a  practical  commentary  on  the 
truth  and  justice  of  the  charge  brought 
against  natives  that  they  bitterly  hate 
the  dominant  race  as  a  rule,  that  in- 
dividual attachment  to  individual  Eng- 

•  "  New  India,"  by  Sir  H.  J.  S.  Cotton. 

65 


Cbe  Spirit  of  t&e  flDrient 


lishmen  should  be  so  marked  a  trait 
in  native  character.  It  is  hardly  pos- 
sible to  travel  over  any  part  of  India, 
where  some  individual  Englishman 
has  not  left  the  impress  of  his  hand, 
whether  for  good  or  evil,  on  the  local- 
ity and  its  people.  And  it  reflects  the 
highest  credit  and  honor  on  the  native 
races  that  while  the  names  of  the  bad 
and  oppressive  men  have  been  almost 
forgotten,  the  memory  of  the  good, 
just  or  charitable  Englishmen  has 
been  preserved  by  tradition  in  perfect 
freshness — a  perpetual  testimony  to 
the  simplicity,  forgiving  spirit  and 
gratitude  of  the  Indian  character.  The 
native  heart  is  naturally  kind,  but  the 
kindness  becomes  warmer  when  the 
object  of  it  is  a  member  of  the  domi- 
nant class.  It  is  not  always  because 
we  expect  any  return  from  him,  but 
it  is  a  peculiar  feeling  with  us  to  be 
anxious  to  stand  well  with  a  race  to 
whom  we  owe  so  many  obligations  as 
a  fallen  and  subject  people.  If  those 
66 


€6e  Viatic  Point 


obligations  had  been  unmixed  with 
quite  as  great  wrongs,  it  is'  our  fear 
that  Englishmen  might  have  been  ob- 
jects of  our  idolatry,  so  enthusiastic 
is  our  regard  and  affection  for  all  who 
really  mean  to  confer  or  have  con- 
ferred on  us  any  great  benefits."* 

But  higher  testimony  still  is  at  hand. 
The  Eastern  search  for  the  "  Ultimate 
and  the  Absolute"  had  run  its  course. 
Ancient  religion  had  sunk  into  debas- 
ing superstition  without  possibility  of 
revival  from  within.  Then  came  the 
powerful  nations  of  the  West,  and 
with  them  new  life  for  the  East: 

"Our  Anglo-Saxon  rulers  brought 
with  them  their  high  civilization, 
their  improved  methods  of  education 
and  their  general  enlightenment.  We 
had  been  in  darkness  and  had  well- 
nigh  forgotten  our  bright  and  glorious 
past.  But  a  new  era  dawned  upon  us. 
New  thoughts,  new  ideas,  newnotions 
began  to  flash  upon  us  one  after  an- 

»  "New  India,"  by  Sir  H.  J.  S.  Cotton. 

67 


Cbe  Spirit  of  tbe  SDrtent 


other.  We  were  rudely  aroused  form 
our  long  sleep  of  ignorance  and  self- 
forgetfulness.  The  old  and  the  new 
met  face  to  face.  We  felt  that  the  old 
could  not  stand  in  the  presence  of  the 
new.  The  old  began  to  see  in  the 
light  of  the  new  and  we  soon  learned 
to  feel  that  our  country  and  society 
had  been  for  a  long  time  suffering 
from  a  number  of  social  evils,  from 
the  errors  of  ignorance  and  from  the 
evils  of  superstition.  Thus  we  began 
to  bestir  ourselves  in  the  way  of  social 
organization.  Such,  then,  were  the 
occasion  and  the  origin  of  the  work 
of  social  reforms  in  India.  "* 
That  quotation  represents  a  state  of 
mind  seldom  found  perhaps  in  India, 
not  often  met  in  China,  but  character- 
istic of  Japan.  We  have  left  this  em- 
pire for  the  most  part  out  of  our  re- 
view. Many  Asiatics  regard  it  as  a 
traitor  to  the  East  and  as  the  willing 
ally  of  the  West.  But  it  at  least  makes 

*  "  Parliament  of  Religions." 

68 


Cbe  Asiatic  H?omt 


a  choice.  We  should,  however,  misun- 
derstand its  attitude  were  we  to  think 
it  the  undiscriminating  copyist  of  our 
ways.  It  believes  that  West  and  East 
have  each  their  part  to  give  to  the 
greater  humanity  of  the  future,  and 
that  Japan,  understanding  both,  is  to 
unite  them,  making  the  future  better 
than  the  present  and  far  nobler  than 
the  past.  That  this  is  Japan's  high 
mission  is  the  faith  of  her  noblest 
sons. 

Whether  it  be  so  or  not,  we  cannot 
turn  away  unmoved  from  the  vision. 
If  God  rules  we  cannot  join  in  the 
wholesale  condemnation  of  the  East 
as  if  it  were  a  blot  on  His  creation. 
Its  long  story  must  have  a  meaning, 
and  it  doubtless  has  its  own  message 
for  us.  Neither  can  we  agree  to  its 
condemnation  of  the  West.  We  have 
faults  enough;  we  are  materialistic, 
greedy,  proud,  but  we  are  not  wholly 
of  the  earth  earthy.  Here,  too,  are 
spirituality  and  pure  morality  and 

69 


Spirit  of  the 


profound  thought.  We  have  our  les- 
sons for  the  East,  and  as  we  come  to 
understand  each  other  we  shall  both 
learn,  and  from  our  intercourse  may 
we  not  believe  that  the  old  antipathies 
will  pass  away  and  that,  though  East 
remain  East  and  West  remain  West, 
still  there  shall  be  triumphant  over 
both  the  nobler  spirit  of  our  common 
humanity,  a  spirit  which  holds  all  men 
as  brothers  as  all  have  one  Father, 
God? 


Ill 
3|nDia,  its  People  anD  Customs 


Ill 
9InDfa,  ft*  people  anD 


UR  attempt  to  describe  the 
spirit  of  the  East  is  con- 
fessedly inadequate,  for  who 
can  pretend  to  embody  that 
which  is  so  illusive?  Now  we  are  to 
study  the  three  great  countries  in  turn 
with  the  purpose  of  testing  our  state- 
ments a  little  more  in  detail.  Natu- 
rally India  comes  first,  naturally  be- 
cause of  its  immemorial  relationship 
to  ourselves  and  because  of  its  rela- 
tionship to  the  lands  farther  east.  We 
could  not  reverse  the  order.  India  has 
been  known  to  the  West  from  the 
dawn  of  history,  and  it  has  contributed 
much  to  our  civilization.  Some  of  its 
people,  too,  are  distant  relatives  of  our 
own.  And  it  has  also  made  an  impres- 
sion on  China,  and  through  China  on 
Japan.  Thus  it  is  truly  a  world  centre, 
sending  influences  throughout  the 
East  and  the  West,  so  that  it  has 

73 


Cfie  Spirit  of  the  HDrient 


reached  all  parts  of  the  globe.  It  is  a 
continent  in  itself,  1,900  miles  from 
north  to  south,  and  1,900  miles  from 
east  to  west,  with  a  population  of  more 
than  290,000,000  souls.  This  vast  area 
is  divided,  excluding  Burmahand  Cey- 
lon, into  three  great  divisions:  First, 
the  great  mountain  region  in  the  north, 
the  dwelling-place  of  the  snows,  Him- 
alaya. One  climbs  laboriously  the  foot- 
hills, themselves  mountain  chains  with 
beautiful  valleys  and  wide  fertile  re- 
gions, until  he  reaches  a  ridge  whence 
he  looks  down  into  an  intervening  val- 
ley, with  the  wall  on  the  other  side 
which  divides  Asia,  a  wall  averaging 
twenty  thousand  feet  in  height,  with 
the  loftiest  peaks  in  the  world,  and 
with  valleys  into  which  the  Alps  might 
be  dropped  and  hidden.  There  are  hun- 
dreds of  miles  so  high  that  their  sum- 
mits have  never  been  trodden  by  the 
foot  of  man  or  beast.  It  seems  impos- 
sible that  the  region  should  be  a  part 
of  our  common  world,  so  dazzling  is 
74 


a,  its  People  and  Customs 

it  and  so  lofty,  like  a  white  veil  let 
down  from  heaven  and  resting  lightly 
upon  the  earth.  These  mountains  con- 
stitute a  great  system  with  parallel 
ranges  and  spurs  jutting  out  to  the 
southeast  and  southwest.  From  the 
earliest  times  they  have  formed  a  bar- 
rier, impassable  in  its  greater  extent 
to  men  excepting  at  its  ends,  where 
the  hills  break  down,  or  through  in- 
frequent and  difficult  passes.  Second, 
the  great  river  plains,  Middle  India 
stretching  along  the  courses  of  the 
Indus,  the  Ganges  and  the  Brahma- 
putra. Here  have  been  the  seats  of  the 
great  empires  and  the  home  of  the 
densest  populations.  South  of  the  plain 
comes  the  southern  hill  country,  the 
Deccan,  its  northern  boundary  the 
Vindhya  range.  This  plateau  is  bound- 
ed by  the  Vindhyas  on  the  north  and 
the  ocean  on  the  east,  south  and  west, 
with  the  two  coast  ranges  called  the 
Ghats,  which  meet  in  the  south  at  Cape 
Comorin.  This  region  was  the  last  to  be 

75 


C6e  Spirit  of  t&e  flDriem 


civilized,  and  has  still  in  our  day  many 
wild  tribes  among  its  inhabitants. 

In  remote  antiquity  Mongolian  peo- 
ples, Mongoloid  the  scientists  call 
them,  came  into  India  from  the  north- 
east. They  occupied  the  slopes  of  the 
Himalaya  Mountains,  and  followed 
the  course  of  the  Brahmaputra  a  little 
way  into  Bengal.  They  mingled  with 
the  peoples  who  had  preceded  them, 
and  fared  variously,  some  advancing 
in  civilization  and  some  deteriorating. 
There  their  descendants  still  remain, 
the  languages  showing  traces  of  an 
ancient  connection  with  the  Chinese. 
But  the  great  road,  the  great  series 
of  roads,  into  the  land  was  from  the 
northwest.  Thence  came  a  succession 
of  peoples  and  of  races.  In  historic 
times  Alexander  the  Great  thus  en- 
tered India,  and  the  British  Empire 
watches  the  passes  with  jealous  care, 
knowing  that  from  thence  must  come 
the  Russians  if  their  dreams  of  Indian 
conquest  are  to  be  realized. 
76 


31ntiia,  its  people  ant»  Customs 

But  long  before  Alexander,  long  be- 
fore there  were  any  Englishmen,  per- 
haps thirty-five  hundred  years  ago— 
a  few  centuries  do  not  matter,  we  shall 
try  to  be  exact  within  say  five  hundred 
years — the  people  came  who  were  to 
form  the  India  we  know,  the  Aryans, 
tall,  well-formed,  light-colored,  with  a 
noble  language  and  a  great  religion. 
They  dwelt  long  in  the  valleys  and  on 
the  slopes  of  the  mountains,  and  then 
slowly,  in  the  course  of  centuries,  oc- 
cupied the  river  plains.  They  went  far 
to  the  south  also  along  the  western 
coast,  but  in  the  centre  and  the  east 
they  were  halted  permanently  by  the 
Vindhya  range. 

How  they  came  to  win  the  land  we 
do  not  know.  There  are  traces  of  the 
process  in  their  sacred  books.  It  was 
doubtless  partly  by  conquest.  They  de- 
spised and  subjugated  the  "natives," 
hating  their  black  color,  their  short 
bodies,  their  pug  noses  and  their  half- 
savage  ways.  In  the  sacred  books 

77 


Cbe  Spirit  of  tbeflDrient 


these  humble  folks  appear  as  savages 
and  demons.  But  traces  remain  which 
show  that  the  aborigines  were  neither 
savages  nor  demons  but  people  with 
a  certain  rudimentary  civilization,  in- 
capable, however,  of  maintaining 
themselves  against  the  new-comers 
from  the  north.  Nor  are  we  to  suppose 
that  the  conquest  was  wholly  by  war. 
There  were  compromise  and  barter 
and  intermarriage,  until  at  last  the  Ar- 
yans were  in  possession  of  middle  In- 
dia, and  the  others  fled  to  the  south, 
where  they  found  refuge  in  the  Dec- 
can,  or  remained  as  outcastes,  or  be- 
came by  marriage  and  amalgamation 
a  part  of  the  superior  race. 

But  the  way  which  proved  so  easy 
for  the  Aryan  was  to  suffice  for  their 
conquerors.  A  thousand  years  ago 
Mohammedans  came  over  the  same 
mountain  heights,  and  after  centuries 
of  varying  fortunes  finally  controlled 
India,  with  their  capitals  at  Delhi  and 
at  Agra,  and  victorious  soldiers  ex- 
78 


jjnpia,  its  People  anD  Customs 

alted  above  the  highest  Brahman  in 
the  land.  Partly  by  immigration  and 
partly  by  assimilation  the  Muslim  in- 
creased mightily,  becoming  a  great 
factor  in  the  population  as  in  the  gov- 
ernment, making  his  mark  clear  and 
firm  upon  the  institutions  of  the  peo- 
ple. It  was  from  these  Mohammedan 
rulers  that  Great  Britain  wrested  the 
land,  and  even  yet  they  retain  the 
pride  of  conquerors,  and  resent  the  in- 
tellectual advancement  and  superior- 
ity of  the  Hindus.  Still,  too,  this  re- 
ligion makes  progress,  multitudes  of 
low-caste  people  embracing  the  virile 
faith  which  advances  them  at  once  in 
social  status. 

Roughly,  then,  we  divide  the  people, 
like  the  land,  into  three  main  divi- 
sions—the ancient  people  represented 
by  numerous  tribes,  speaking  many 
languages,  with  the  outcastes,  who 
live  in  the  suburbs  of  the  Hindu  towns, 
lowest  in  the  scale,  though  longest  on 
the  land ;  the  Aryans,  in  part  perhaps 

79 


C6e  Spirit  of  tfieflDrient 


still  pure  in  blood  but  for  the  greater 
part  intermarried  with  members  of 
the  subject  races,  constitutingthe  vast 
majority  of  the  people  now,  and  the 
efficient  factors  in  the  production  of 
Indian  poetry,  literature,  philosophy 
and  religion;  and  finally,  the  Moham- 
medans, new-comers,  that  is  to  say, 
within  a  thousand  years,  conscious  of 
their  military  superiority,  but,  on  the 
whole,  in  nothing  above  those  who 
had  preceded  them.  Besides  there  are 
other  races  of  smaller  numbers  but  of 
great  interest,  like  the  Parsis,  descend- 
ants of  the  ancient  fire-worshippers  of 
Persia,  expelled  from  their  own  coun- 
try by  Mohammedan  invaders,  and 
now  prospering  greatly  under  British 
rule.  There  are  less  than  a  hundred 
thousand  of  them,  and  they  live  for 
the  greater  part  near  Bombay.  Then, 
too,  there  are  Sikhs,  a  military  race 
with  a  religion  of  their  own,  of  course, 
since  in  India  religion  counts  for 
everything  and  race  for  little,  who 
80 


3lnDia,  its  People  anu  Customs 

make  the  best  of  auxiliary  troops 
under  foreign  leadership;  and  Jains, 
whose  faith  goes  back  to  the  time  of 
Buddha.  Thus  if  India  is  continental 
in  size  it  is  more  than  continental  in 
the  variety  of  inhabitants,  and  never 
from  the  earliest  dawn  of  its  history 
has  it  produced  even  a  temporary 
unity  or  any  consciousness  of  soli- 
darity. Its  population  is  more  than 
twice  that  of  the  Roman  Empire  in 
the  days  of  its  greatest  extent,  and 
it  has  a  greater  variety  of  tribes  and 
peoples  than  ever  acknowledged  the 
rule  of  the  Caesars.  It  is  a  wilderness 
of  peoples,  languages,  religions  and 
customs,  full  of  rich  mines  of  informa- 
tion which  await  the  scholars  who 
shall  exploit  them. 

Let  us  report  briefly  the  physical  fea- 
tures on  which  depends  the  distribu- 
tion of  the  population.  The  great  snow 
range  shuts  off  not  only  men  but  winds, 
and  forms  a  barrier  against  which  the 
southern  winds  of  the  monsoon  beat, 

81 


Spirit  of  tfte  Orient 


depositing  their  moisture.  To  the  east 
of  the  centre  the  flanks  are  protected 
by  trackless  forests  and  to  the  west 
by  arid  plateaux  and  deserts,  both  re- 
gions, east  and  west,  inhabited  still 
by  tribes  of  lawless  men.  Between  this 
great  range  and  the  oceans  to  the 
south,  enclosed  therefore  on  all  sides 
and  isolated,  is  India  with,  including 
Burmah  now,  766,597  square  miles, 
12,000  square  miles  larger  than  Eu- 
rope if  we  exclude  Russia.  The  popu- 
lation is  294,361,056.  Most  of  the  peo- 
ple live  in  peasant  villages,  only  two 
per  cent  being  in  cities,  if  we  count 
as  cities  all  towns  which  contain  so 
many  as  20,000  people,  while  the  vil- 
lages are  innumerable.  There  is,  there- 
fore, very  little  overcrowding  in  tene- 
ments, for  the  large  cities,  Calcutta, 
Bombay,  Madras,  Hyderabad,  &c., are 
so  few  that  their  special  conditions 
may  be  overlooked  in  this  rapid  sur- 
vey. 

As  the  people  thus  distributed  in  vil- 
82 


3|nDia,  its  People  anp  Customg 

lages  are  farmers,  as  many  as  two 
thirds  of  the  entire  population  being 
returned  in  the  census  as  agricultur- 
ists, it  follows,  therefore,  that  the  po- 
pulation has  to  do  with  the  conditions 
of  soil  and  weather  most  favorable  to 
agriculture.  A  glance  at  the  map  of 
population  shows  this  to  be  the  fact. 
The  densest  population  is  in  the 
great  plain  along  the  Ganges  and  its 
branches. 

India  is  dependent  upon  the  periodic 
winds,  called  monsoons,  for  its  pro- 
sperity. They  come  from  the  south 
laden  with  moisture,  and  pour  down 
the  contents  of  their  clouds  upon  the 
thirsty  soil.  There  are  two  monsoons, 
with  dry  seasons  intervening.  The 
farmer  watches  the  sky  anxiously  for 
the  early  and  the  later  rain. 

"August 's  here,  no  sound  of  thunder, 

Sky  is  clear  and  weather  fine, 
Wife!  't  is  time  for  us  to  sunder, 
You  to  your  folks,  I  to  mine." 

83 


Cfje  Spirit  of  tbe  Orient 


So  sings  the  peasant,  and  breaks  up 
his  family  in  fear  of  famine.  In  the 
season  called  Swati,  the  end  of  Octo- 
ber and  early  November — 

"One  shower  in  Swati,  friend,  behold, 
The  Kurmi's  ear-ring  turned  to  gold," 

so  closely  are  prosperity  and  adver- 
sity dependent  upon  the  weather,  and 
so  surely  does  prosperity  show  itself 
in  the  purchase  of  adornment  for  the 
person. 

The  rainfall  varies  greatly.  Along  the 
Western  Ghats,  above  Bombay,  it  is 
prodigious,  and  the  rain  comes  on 
with  fury.  Houses  which  are  exposed 
to  the  blast  will  have  neither  door  nor 
window  on  the  side  from  which  the 
storm  comes.  A  friend,  long  resident 
in  Bombay,  told  me  that  within  an 
hour  of  the  first  fall  of  rain  he  had 
seen  men  swimming  in  the  streets. 
Then  by  way  of  contrast,  in  districts 
shielded  by  mountains  there  is  as 
little  as  eight  inches  of  rain  in  the 
84 


3[nUia,  it0  People  ana  Cu0tom0 

year,  with  all  varieties  and  degrees  of 
moisture  between. 

In  the  middle  country,  in  the  Ganges 
valley,  the  population  is  more  than  400 
to  the  square  mile,  with  one  district 
reported  as  possessing  1,920  to  this 
area,  and  these  are  peasants,  we  must 
remember,  dependent  upon  the  sky 
and  the  soil  for  their  livelihood,  and 
living  not  in  cities  but  in  tiny  villages. 
On  the  whole  we  may  lay  down  the 
rule  that  population  is  large  where  the 
rainfall  is  great  and  trustworthy,  and 
small  where  it  fails,  though  this  state- 
ment, like  all  statements  about  so 
vast  a  subject,  is  true  only  in  a  gen- 
eral way  and  with  many  exceptions. 

While  upon  this  subject  we  may  re- 
fer in  passing  to  the  famines.  When 
the  monsoon  fails,  as  fail  it  often  does, 
then  there  is  trouble  at  once.  The 
peasants  have  little  laid  up  against  a 
dry  day,  and  when,  as  also  happens, 
the  monsoon  fails  for  three  years  in 
succession  the  effects  are  terrible.  In 

85 


C6e  Spirit  of  tfieSDrient 


the  past,  in  populous  districts,  a  quar- 
ter of  the  people  have  perished,  and 
as  recently  as  1899-1900  as  many  as 
4,000,000  persons  died  from  this  cause, 
notwithstanding  the  great  efforts  by 
the  government  for  their  relief.  Yet, 
strange  as  it  may  seem,  the  advance 
of  population  in  general  is  little  hin- 
dered by  these  calamities.  The  sickly, 
the  aged,  the  unfit  die,  while  the 
strong,  young  and  vigorous  survive. 
Hence,  in  a  generation  the  losses  are 
made  up  and  the  population  seems 
almost  more  thriving  by  its  terrible 
weeding  process. 

Though  the  population  is  so  dense 
in  great  sections  of  the  empire,  yet 
on  the  whole  India  is  not  overcrowded. 
One  fifth  of  the  whole  population  is 
on  one  twentieth  of  the  total  area, 
two  thirds  of  the  people  live  on  one 
quarter  of  the  land,  so  that  three 
quarters  are  sparsely  settled  in  com- 
parison. And  oddly,  the  people  are 
most  prosperous  in  Eastern  Bengal, 
86 


3lnDia,  its  People  anD  Customs 

where  the  population  is  the  most 
dense.  With  improved  means  of  trans- 
portation and  of  agriculture,  with 
the  introduction  of  manufactures  and 
the  extension  of  irrigation,  India  may 
provide  well  enough  for  its  natural 
increase  for  centuries  to  come,  since 
for  the  decade  preceding  1901  the  net 
increase  was  only  1.5  per  cent. 

The  government  is  paying  attention 
to  these  needs,  having  built  many 
thousands  of  miles  of  railway  and 
43,000  miles  of  irrigation  canals,  and 
promoted  scientific  agriculture,  the 
cultivation  of  special  products  and 
the  development  of  mines  and  other 
natural  resources. 

The  people  are  farmers,  as  we  have 
stated,  and  this  in  so  great  a  pro- 
portion that  the  other  occupations  are 
small  indeed.  No  other  calling  repre- 
sents as  much  as  six  per  cent  of  the 
population,  while  commerce  claims 
scarcely  more  than  one  per  cent.  Evi- 
dently the  people  are  still  in  the  stage 

87 


Cbe  Spirit  of  tbeflDrient 


of  development  where  wants  are  few 
and  money  little  needed.  We  think 
of  our  highly  organized  machinery  of 
civilization  as  being  natural,  and  are 
unmindful  of  the  fact  that  the  greater 
part  of  the  race  get  on  very  well  with- 
out banks,  or  merchants,  or  machines, 
or  lawyers,  or  doctors.  In  India  there 
are  few  men  of  leisure,  only  five  mil- 
lions entered  in  the  census  as  such, 
and  of  these  more  than  four  millions 
are  common  beggars. 

In  most  countries  females  outnumber 
males,  but  in  India  the  reverse  is  true, 
963  of  the  former  to  1,000  of  the  latter, 
the  discrepancy  being  caused  proba- 
bly by  a  relative  inattention  to  female 
infants,  for  though  there  seems  now- 
adays to  be  little  direct  infanticide,  the 
baby  girl  is  not  welcome,  and  if  she  die 
there  is  small  regret. 

If  she  grow  up  she  will  not  be  taught 
to  read  save  in  exceptional  circum- 
stances. Nor  will  the  boy,  as  a  rule, 
for  in  all  this  vast  population  only  one 
88 


3[nDta,  its  people  ana  Customs 

man  in  ten  can  read  and  write,  and 
only  one  woman  in  one  hundred  and 
forty-four,  and  this  includes  the  sta- 
tistics for  Burmah,  where  the  Bud- 
dhists for  centuries  have  maintained 
schools  in  the  temples  for  a  large  pro- 
portion of  the  people.  Probably  no 
other  civilized  people  is  so  ignorant. 
The  reasons  for  it  are  significant  of 
the  condition  of  the  masses:  life  has 
too  little  outlook;  there  is  no  incen- 
tive to  the  labor  involved ;  the  people 
are  too  submissive  to  fate,  too  content 
with  their  condition,  too  hopeless  of 
bettering  it.  So  they  do  not  establish 
schools,  nor  attend  them  if  established. 
It  has  been  maintained  that  the  low- 
caste  folk  are  incapable  of  intellectual 
training,  but  like  all  such  statements 
founded  upon  prejudice,  this  is  mis- 
taken. The  schools  established  by 
missionaries  prove  that  outcastes,  low 
castes,  and  even  primitive  hill  folk 
may  all  be  taught,  and  that  all  re- 
spond to  effort  in  their  behalf. 

89 


C6e  Spirit  of  the  HDtient 


With  illiteracy  is  poverty.  But  we 
must  not  judge  by  our  standards.  A 
man  is  as  poor  as  he  feels,  and  his 
feelings  are  by  way  of  contrast.  Caste 
fixes  one's  position  irrevocably,  and 
therefore  the  individual  compares  him- 
self only  with  those  who  are  in  like 
condition.  Hence,  for  the  most  part, 
the  sting  of  poverty,  self-depreciation, 
is  escaped.  But  the  poverty  is  there, 
nevertheless. 

In  a  climate  like  India's,  clothes  are 
for  ornament,  and  nakedness,  more  or 
less  complete,  is  the  rule.  The  native 
covers  the  head  instinctively,  and 
cares  little  for  the  rest  of  the  body. 
Hence,  excepting  for  ornament, 
clothes  need  not  be  provided.  But 
ornaments  must  be.  Indian  civiliza- 
tion is  essentially  ornate.  The  great 
man  surrounds  himself  with  pomp 
and  splendor.  I  commented  adversely 
upon  the  extravagant  railway  station 
in  Bombay  to  a  friend:  "The  people 
have  to  pay  for  this,  and  it  is  too  fine ; 
90 


3|nDia,  its  people  and  Customs 

a  simpler  building  would  have  an- 
swered every  purpose."  But  he  replied: 
"No  native  would  make  your  criti- 
cism. It  is  a  government  railway,  and 
in  India  governments  are  expected  to 
be  magnificent!"  The  same  spirit  is  in 
the  common  people.  When  the  rain 
comes, 

"The  Kurmi's  ear-ring  turns  to  gold." 

Asking  my  friend  of  the  government 
college  in  Lucknow  as  to  his  obser- 
vation of  the  condition  of  the  people, 
he  replied:  "They  are  prosperous  on 
the  whole.  One  sees  more  jewelry 
worn  than  when  I  first  came  out." 
As  clothes  are  not  needed,  no  more 
is  furniture.  Again,  great  houses  and 
elaborate  establishments  are  for  dis- 
play. The  common  man  needs  little. 
His  house  is  merely  a  shelter.  The 
climate  for  the  greater  part  keeps 
him  out  of  doors,  and  he  seeks  only  a 
refuge  from  beasts,  snakes,  rain  and 
the  greatest  heat.  Such  requirements 

91 


Cbe  Spirit  of  t&e  SDrient 


are  readily  met,  and  his  hut,  which 
to  our  eyes  lacks  everything,  to  his 
thought  is  complete. 
His  food  is  as  simple  as  his  house. 
He  will  not  eat  beef,  nor  any  animal 
food,  not  even  an  egg,  because  of  re- 
ligious prejudice,  which  has  become 
an  invincible  repugnance.  He  often 
uses  a  leaf  for  a  plate,  his  fingers  for 
knife,  fork  and  spoon,  and  the  ground 
or  the  floor  for  a  table.  Hence  ex- 
pense and  labor  are  reduced  to  the 
lowest  terms  and  the  simple  life  is 
demonstrated  as  feasible  and  satis- 
factory. My  professorial  friend  on  a 
visit  to  Calcutta  found  on  his  hotel 
bill  a  charge  of  a  rupee  a  day  for  food 
furnished  his  servant.  Whereupon  he 
summoned  him  and  asked  if  he  ate  a 
rupee  a  day.  The  man  opened  his  eyes 
in  astonishment  and  informed  his  mas- 
ter that  not  a  man  in  the  wide  world 
could  eat  a  rupee  a  day.  Whereupon 
my  friend  told  him  to  buy  his  own 
food  in  the  bazaar,  and  he  went  away 
92 


3[nt»ia,  its  People  ana  Customs 

vastly  content  with  an  allowance  of 
a  quarter  of  a  rupee.  But  such  a  ser- 
vant was  pampered.  The  average  in- 
come in  India  of  a  peasant  is  of  the 
smallest,  and  on  this  the  family  must 
be  supported  and  provision  made  for 
funerals  and  marriages.  If  daily  life  is 
simple,  such  occasions  are  complex. 
Marriage  is  an  affair  of  dower,  and 
the  ceremonies  are  elaborate  and  pro- 
longed, leaving  the  great  majority  of 
parents  in  hopeless  debt.  It  is  no  won- 
der that  when  the  rains  fail  there  is 
immediate  distress  with  starvation 
not  very  far  away. 

The  outward  life  is  barren  and  even 
austere  in  its  poverty,  so  that  one  is 
tempted  to  look  upon  the  people  as 
savages ;  but  how  extraordinary  is  the 
complexity  of  the  social  life.  In  this, 
our  life  in  the  United  States  is  in  com- 
parison primitive  and  undeveloped. 
Take  marriage,  for  example.  How  won- 
derful the  contrast!  The  fundamental 
rule  in  India  is  that  the  woman  may 

93 


Cbe  Spirit  of  t&e  iDrient 


not  choose  for  herself,  and  the  second 
rule  is  like  unto  it  in  rigidity,  she  may 
not  remain  unmarried,  and  only  less 
universal,  once  married  she  may  not 
marry  again.  None  knows  precisely 
how  the  custom  of  infant  marriages 
originated,  but  it  is  now  something 
fortunately  unique,  a  custom  which 
separates  the  people  of  India  from  all 
others,  and  which  bears  with  it  a  long 
list  of  ills.  It  is  complicated  further 
with  the  rules  of  caste,  a  woman  may 
marry  into  a  higher  caste,  but  never 
into  a  lower  caste,  and  with  innumer- 
able notions  and  rites  and  rules  of 
religion,  so  that  the  native  is  bound 
and  loses  in  his  family  relationships 
the  freedom  he  seemed  to  gain  by  the 
simplicity  of  his  surroundings  and  his 
ability  to  enjoy  dignity  without  en- 
cumbrances. 

In  this  cursory  survey,  all  too  frag- 
mentary and  hasty,  of  the  outward  ap- 
pearances of  the  Indian  people,  reli- 
gion must  be  included.  We  shall  have 
94 


3jnuta,  its  people  ana  Customs 

something  to  say  of  its  spirit  later  on, 
and  here  we  can  refer  only  to  its  outer 
forms. 

The  great  mass  of  the  people  (207,- 
000,000  of  them)  are  classed  as  Hindu. 
This  does  not  mean  that  they  have  the 
same  religion,  in  our  sense,  for  they 
worship  many  different  gods  in  many 
different  ways,  but  it  signifies  that 
they  acknowledge  the  supremacy  of 
the  Brahmans,  and  accept  the  caste 
system.  Within  this  great  mass  are  re- 
ligions and  sects  innumerable,  some 
of  them  hostile,  many  of  them  hereti- 
cal, and  some  of  them  depraved.  The 
Brahmans  will  minister  to  any  and  to 
all,  for  their  own  faith  is  different  from 
all  the  rest  and  is  incommunicable  to 
other  castes.  Hence  they  accommo- 
date themselves  to  the  weakness  and 
ignorance  of  others,  as  if  a  philosophic 
theist  among  ourselves,  thinking  it  im- 
possible to  teach  the  common  folk,  and 
recognizing  in  a  condescending  way 
our  religions  as  forces  for  good  and  the 

95 


€6e  Spirit  of  tfje  flDnent 


best  that  we  can  comprehend,  should 
be  ready  to  minister,  for  a  price,  indif- 
ferently in  a  Quaker  meeting,  an  Epis- 
copal church,  a  Roman  Catholic  ca- 
thedral, a  Mormon  temple  or  a  Chris- 
tian Science  congregation,  classing 
all  together  as  " Christian,"  and  hold- 
ing his  own  philosophy  as  the  essen- 
tial truth  of  which  the  others  are  mere 
shadows  and  outward  forms. 
Next  to  the  Hindus  in  importance 
are  the  Mohammedans.  It  is  a  relief  to 
turn  from  the  gaudy  and  dirty  Hindu 
temples  to  the  empty  and  clean  and 
often  magnificent  mosques.  There  is 
a  solemnity,  a  simplicity,  a  solidity, 
which  appeals  profoundly  to  our  reli- 
gious instincts.  No  pictures,  no  sta- 
tues, no  altar,  no  music,  but  here  and 
there  a  worshipper,  with  his  face  turned 
towards  Mecca  and  his  knees  bent  in 
prayer.  There  are  more  than  62,000,- 
ooo  of  these  worshippers  of  God,  the 
descendants  of  the  conquerors  of  India 
and  their  proselytes.  The  faith  con- 
96 


3[nDia,  its  People  anD  Customs 

stantly  increases,  partly  because  its 
natural  growth  is  more  rapid  than  with 
the  population  in  general,  and  partly 
because  new  believers  are  won  from 
members  of  the  lower  Hindu  castes. 
The  religion,  however,  has  not  re- 
mained pure.  It  too  is  divided  into 
sects,  and  it  has  been  influenced  by 
Hinduism  in  various  matters  of  belief 
and  practice  so  that  some  Mohamme- 
dans unhesitatingly  join  in  the  Hindu 
festivals. 

Third  in  importance  are  the  peoples 
of  primitive  religions,  who  have  not 
yet  accepted  the  caste  system.  But 
they  also  gradually  yield  to  their  sur- 
roundings and  become  incorporated 
in  the  prevailing  religion.  From  them 
many  have  been  converted  also  to 
Christianity,  and  it  is  probable  that 
still  greater  gains  will  be  made  in  the 
future.  Besides,  there  are  Jains  and 
Buddhists  and  Parsis  and  Christians, 
making  altogether  a  wilderness  of  re- 
ligions, with  all  varieties  of  faith,  from 

97 


Cfre  Spirit  of  tbe  Orient 


the  most  philosophic  to  the  most  pu- 
erile and  impure. 

As  with  religion,  so  with  language, 
we  have  a  vast  variety  with  wide  dif- 
ferences. Some  of  the  languages  can- 
not express  at  all  ideas  which  are 
among  the  simplest  and  most  com- 
monplace known  to  us.  Some  of  them 
are  monosyllabic  and  as  simple  as 
words  communicating  thought  can  be, 
others  are  highly  complex,  so  polysyl- 
labic that  a  whole  thought  is  expressed 
in  a  word,  so  intricate  that  a  hundred 
forms  are  given  of  a  single  tense  of  a 
single  verb,  while  still  others  are  re- 
fined, copious  in  vocabulary,  finished 
in  structure,  and  expressive  of  the  pur- 
est emotions  and  the  noblest  thoughts 
of  which  humanity  is  capable.  Again 
we  make  a  threefold  division:  we  re- 
member that  Mongoloid  people  came 
into  India  from  the  northeast.  Two 
millions  speak  languages  which  be- 
long to  the  Indo-Chinese  family.  Then 
next,  the  earlier  inhabitants,  driven 
98 


3lnDia,  00  people  anD  Cii0tom0 

south  into  the  Deccan,  speak  the  lan- 
guages called  Dravidian;  of  them 
there  are  60,000,000;  while  221,000,000 
people  speak  languages  which  are 
classed  as  Indo-European. 

Our  survey  would  be  incomplete  in- 
deed were  we  to  leave  out  caste.  As 
we  have  seen,  its  acceptance  is  the  ac- 
ceptance of  Hinduism,  and  its  influ- 
ence extends  even  into  the  Moham- 
medan faith.  It  is  perhaps  the  most 
characteristic  feature  of  Indian  social 
life.  How  it  arose  we  do  not  know, 
probably  by  an  exaggeration  of  influ- 
ences known  else  where,  race  pride  and 
prejudice,  religious  aloofness,  aristo- 
cratic exclusiveness,  and  finally  trade- 
unionism.  Caste  is  the  most  compli- 
cated and  the  most  powerful  social  or- 
ganization known  on  earth.  Let  me 
conclude  this  chapter  by  quoting  at 
length  from  the  Census  of  India  for 
1901: 

"For  my  own  part  I  have  always 
been  much  impressed  by  the  difficulty 

99 


€be%ptrit  of  tbe  Orient 


of  conveying  to  European  readers 
who  have  no  experience  of  India,  even 
an  approximate  idea  of  the  extraor- 
dinary complexity  of  the  social  system 
which  is  involved  in  the  word  caste. 
At  the  risk  of  being  charged  with 
frivolity,  I  shall  therefore  venture  on 
an  illustration,  based  on  one  which  I 
published  in  'Blackwood's  Magazine' 
some  dozen  years  ago,  of  a  caste  ex- 
pressed in  the  terms  of  an  English 
social  group.  I  said  then,  let  us  take 
an  instance,  and  in  order  to  avoid  the 
fumes  of  bewilderment  that  are  thrown 
off  by  uncouth  names,  let  us  frame  it 
on  English  lines.  Let  us  imagine  the 
great  tribe  of  Smith,  the  'noun  of  mul- 
titude,' as  a  famous  headmaster  used 
to  call  it,  to  be  transformed  by  art 
magic  into  a  caste  organized  on  the 
Indian  model,  in  which  all  the  subtle 
nuances  of  social  merit  and  demerit 
which  *  Punch*  and  the  society  papers 
love  to  chronicle  should  have  been 
set  and  hardened  into  positive  regu- 
100 


3[nDia,  its  People  and  Customs 

lations  affecting  the  intermarriage  of 
families.  The  caste  thus  formed  would 
trace  its  origin  back  to  a  mythical 
eponymous  ancestor,  the  first  Smith, 
who  converted  the  rough  stone  hatchet 
into  the  bronze  battle-axe,  and  took 
his  name  from  the  *  smooth'  weapons 
that  he  wrought  for  his  tribe.  Bound 
together  by  this  tie  of  common  de- 
scent, they  would  recognize  as  a  car- 
dinal doctrine  of  their  community  the 
rule  that  a  Smith  must  marry  a  Smith, 
and  could  by  no  possibility  marry  a 
Brown,  a  Jones,  or  a  Robinson.  But 
over  and  above  this  general  canon 
two  other  modes  or  principles  of 
grouping  within  the  caste  would  be 
conspicuous.  First  of  all,  the  entire 
caste  of  Smith  would  be  split  up  into 
an  indefinite  number  of  *  in-marrying' 
clans,  based  upon  all  sorts  of  trivial 
distinctions.  Brewing  Smiths  and  bak- 
ing Smiths,  hunting  Smiths  and  shoot- 
ing Smiths,  temperance  Smiths  and  li- 
censed-victualler Smiths,  Smiths  with 

101 


Cbe  Spirit  of  tie  Orient 


double-barrelled  names  and  hyphens, 
Smiths  with  double-barrelled  names 
without  hyphens,  conservative  Smiths, 
radical  Smiths,  tinker  Smiths,  tailor 
Smiths,  Smiths  of  Mercia,  Smiths  of 
Wessex — all  these  and  all  other  ima- 
ginable varieties  of  the  tribe  Smith 
would  be,  as  it  were,  crystallized  by  an 
inexorable  law  forbidding  the  mem- 
bers of  any  of  these  groups  to  marry 
beyond  the  circle  marked  out  by  the 
clan  name.  Thus  the  Unionist  Mr. 
Smith  could  only  marry  a  Unionist 
Miss  Smith  and  could  not  think  of 
a  home-rule  damsel;  the  free-trade 
Smiths  would  have  nothing  to  say 
to  the  protectionists ;  a  hyphen  Smith 
could  only  marry  a  hyphen  Smith,  and 
so  on.  Secondly,  and  this  is  the  point 
which  I  more  especially  wish  to  bring 
out  here,  running  through  this  end- 
less series  of  clans  we  should  find  an- 
other principle  at  work  breaking  up 
each  clan  into  three  or  four  smaller 
groups  which  form  a  sort  of  ascending 
102 


3[nDra,  its  people  anti  Customs 

scale  of  social  distinction.  Thus  the 
clan  of  hyphen  Smiths,  which  we  take 
to  be  the  cream  of  caste, — the  Smiths 
who  have  attained  to  the  crowning 
glory  of  double  names  securely  welded 
together  by  hyphens, — would  be  again 
divided  into,  let  me  say,  Anglican, 
Dissenting  and  Salvationist  hyphen 
Smiths,  taking  rank  in  that  order. 
Now  the  rule  of  this  trio  of  groups 
would  be  that  a  man  of  the  highest 
or  Anglican  order  might  marry  a  girl 
of  his  own  group  or  of  the  two  lower 
groups;  that  a  man  of  the  second  or 
Dissenting  group  might  take  a  Dis- 
senting or  Salvationist  wife,  while  a 
Salvationist  man  would  be  restricted 
to  his  own  group.  A  woman,  it  will 
be  observed,  could  under  no  circum- 
stances marry  down  into  a  group  be- 
low her,  and  it  would  be  thought  emi- 
nently desirable  for  her  to  marry  into 
a  higher  group.  Other  things  being 
equal,  it  is  clear  that  two  thirds  of 
the  Anglican  girls  would  get  no  hus- 

103 


C6e  Spirit  of  tbe  flDrient 


bands  and  two  thirds  of  the  Salva- 
tionist men  no  wives.  These  are  some 
of  the  restrictions  which  would  con- 
trol the  process  of  match-making  a- 
mong  the  Smiths  if  they  were  organ- 
ized in  a  caste  of  the  Indian  type. 
There  would  also  be  restrictions  as 
to  food.  The  different  in-marrying 
clans  would  be  precluded  from  marry- 
ing together,  and  their  possibilities 
of  reciprocal  entertainment  would  be 
limited  to  those  products  of  the  con- 
fectioner's shop  into  the  composition 
of  which  water,  the  most  fatal  and 
effective  vehicle  of  ceremonial  impu- 
rity, had  not  entered.  Fire  purifies, 
water  pollutes.  It  would  follow  in  fact 
that  they  could  eat  chocolates  and 
other  forms  of  sweetmeats  together, 
but  could  not  drink  tea  or  coffee  and 
could  only  partake  of  ices  if  they  were 
made  without  water  and  were  served 
on  metal  not  porcelain  plates.  I  am 
sensible  of  having  trenched  on  the 
limits  of  official  and  scientific  pro- 
104 


3lnDia,  its  People  ana  Customs 

priety  in  attempting  to  describe  an 
ancient  and  famous  institution  in  un- 
duly vivacious  language,  but  the  par- 
allel is  as  accurate  as  any  parallel 
drawn  from  the  other  end  of  the  world 
can  well  be,  and  when  one  wishes  to 
convey  a  vivid  idea  one  cannot  afford 
to  be  over  particular  as  to  the  terms 
one  uses." 


IV 

3lnDia,  its  Spirit  ana  Problems 


IV 

Slntrfa,  ftt  £>pftf  t  anfc 


HE  spirit  of  India  is  ex- 
pressed most  clearly  in  its 
religion.  So  its  sons  tell  us, 
and  so  the  impartial  stu- 
dent must  decide.  Some  writers  set 
forth  religion  as  the  cause  of  the  de- 
gradation or  advancement  of  a  peo- 
ple, while  others  teach  that  it  is  itself 
the  result  of  the  condition  of  the  na- 
tion. There  is  truth  in  both  views, 
since  the  condition  of  a  people  reacts 
upon  its  religion  and  its  religion  acts 
upon  its  condition.  Without  discuss- 
ing the  question  we  point  out  the  clear 
fact  that  in  India  the  religion  is  closely 
in  accord  with  all  the  circumstances 
and  conditions  of  the  people's  life. 
We  may  find  the  widest  variety  of 
belief  and  practice,  from  the  dim,  con- 
fused, irrational  cults  of  the  Dravidian 
peoples  to  the  high  philosophy  of  the 
Brahmans,  and  in  so  vast  a  mass  one 

109 


Spirit  of  the  SDrient 


finds  with  difficulty  a  clue  which  will 
reduce  it  to  order.  How  should  one  de- 
scribe in  a  few  pages  Christianity  with 
its  many  divisions,  its  antagonistic 
sects  and  teachings?  More  difficult 
still  is  it  to  make  intelligible  the  tan- 
gle of  worships  which  we  call  the  re- 
ligion of  India.  But,  with  a  clear  con- 
sciousness of  the  imperfection  of  our 
result,  we  shall  make  the  attempt. 
At  the  bottom  we  find  a  mass  of  un- 
systematized,  unformulated  and  un- 
organized beliefs  which  we  should 
call  superstitions,  fears  of  mysterious 
influences  and  powers  which  cannot 
be  defined  or  described,  like  the  fears 
men  feel  in  passing  through  a  dark 
wood  at  night,  or  the  sensations  of 
children  as  they  look  into  a  deep  cave, 
or  the  feelings  which  survive  in  civili- 
zation as  to  the  number  thirteen  and 
seeing  the  moon  over  the  left  shoulder. 
These  feelings  are  attached  to  places 
and  objects,  to  a  strange  tree  or  a 
peculiar  stone  or  a  mysterious  ani- 
no 


3lnDia,  itg  g>pitit  anD 


mal  or  an  unusual  man  or  woman. 
They  are  a  combination  of  wonder 
and  of  fear,  and  result  in  a  combina- 
tion of  rites,  some  of  simple  worship, 
the  expression  of  the  wonder,  and  some 
of  propitiation,  the  expression  of  the 
fear.  Especially  animals  are  looked 
upon  as  divine,  snakes  and  tigers  and 
monkeys  and  many  others.  Divine, 
did  I  write?  The  word  has  too  sacred 
a  meaning;  unnatural,  or  supernatu- 
ral, or  uncannny,  or  ghostly  would  be 
more  fitting.  Naturally  the  rites  are 
of  the  simplest,  as  boys  knock  wood  to 
avert  bad  luck,  a  remnant  of  ancient 
heathenism  still  surviving  among  us. 
In  this  lowest  stage  there  is  constant 
change.  If,  for  example,  a  tree  which 
is  supposed  to  be  worshipful  is  cut 
down  by  some  foreigner,  nothing  is 
thought  of  the  catastrophe,  nor  is  any 
explanation  forthcoming  as  to  what 
has  become  of  the  mysterious  power 
which  had  been  supposed  to  dwell 
in  it. 

in 


C6e  Spirit  of  tbeDtient 


As  these  men  worship  powerful  and 
dreaded  animals,  so  they  worship  pow- 
erful and  dreaded  men  living  and 
dead.  Before  the  grave  of  an  English- 
man who  had  been  much  feared  the 
simple-minded  natives  made  offerings, 
cigars  and  brandy  and  the  like,  sup- 
posing that  after  death  he  could  be 
propitiated  by  gifts  of  the  articles  he 
was  addicted  to  in  life.  Stranger  yet, 
a  story  is  told  of  an  official  who  be- 
came a  god  while  still  alive.  His  wor- 
shippers would  grovel  at  his  feet  and 
offer  gifts,  while  he  cursed  them  and 
declared  himself  no. god.  But  his  af- 
firmations did  not  affect  their  faith; 
a  god  he  was  and  a  god  he  must  re- 
main. 

Above  this  condition,  where,  let  me 
repeat,  the  terms  god  and  divine  are 
too  exalted  for  the  objects  of  worship, 
we  find  an  infinite  series  of  grada- 
tions. There  are  local  gods  with  his- 
tories and  priests  and  elaborate  cults, 
and  there  are  universal  gods,  who 

1X2 


3[ntiia,  its  ^pfrft  anti  Problems 

may  be  described  nearly  in  the  terms 
we  use  to  describe  the  Christian's 
God.  There  are  in  connection  with 
these  various  deities  all  forms  of  rites : 
some  of  them  grossly  indecent,  some 
refined  and  pure;  some  shockingly 
cruel  and  others  impressive  and  well 
ordered ;  some  of  them  wildly  extrav- 
agant; others  simple  and  plain.  For 
as  we  have  a  continent  in  extent  and 
a  continent  in  the  number  of  peoples, 
so  we  have  more  than  a  continental 
variety  in  religion.  But  still,  exclud- 
ing only  the  Mohammedans,  the 
Parsis,  the  Sikhs  and  the  Dravidian 
peoples  not  yet  reclaimed,  all  are 
ranked  as  Hindus.  How  can  we  ex- 
plain such  an  anomaly?  How  can 
we  reconcile  oneness  of  faith  with  a 
multiplicity  of  contradictory  beliefs? 
Well,  it  is  not  a  oneness  of  faith.  Hin- 
duism, as  we  have  explained,  means 
merely  the  mass  of  those  who  accept 
the  supremacy  of  the  Brahmans  and 
the  caste  system.  Within  those  broad 

"3 


Cfre  Spirit  of  tbeSDtient 


limits  every  one  may  believe  and  wor- 
ship as  he  will. 

For  the  religion  of  India  in  its  high- 
est development  is  the  worship  of  the 
" Ultimate  and  the  Absolute,"  as  Mr. 
Okakura  told  us  in  our  second  chapter. 
Can  we  get  that  meaning  clearly  be- 
fore us?  In  spite  of  its  abstract  nature, 
let  us  try.  The  Ultimate  and  the  Ab- 
solute represent  the  reality  which  is 
from  everlasting  to  everlasting,  which 
never  changes,  and  which  is  infinite, 
that  is,  limitless.  Therefore  it  is  the 
opposite  of  all  which  we  can  see  or 
touch  or  define.  All  these  things  pass 
away.  Sunshine  and  shadow,  day  and 
night,  leaves  and  flowers,  winter  and 
summer,  the  trees,  the  hills  themselves, 
the  earth,  the  sun,  the  universe,  all  be- 
gan to  be,  all  change,  all  pass  away, 
all  therefore  are  the  very  opposite  of 
the  Ultimate,  which  is  changeless  and 
forever  the  same.  How  shall  we  define 
it?  Perhaps  by  negatives:  it  is  not  the 
fire,  the  rain,  the  sun,  the  earth,  man's 
114 


3inuia,  its  Spirit  anD  Problems 

mind,  the  universe.  But  how  shall  we 
define  it  more  closely?  We  cannot,  for 
to  define  it  is  to  limit  it. 

I  was  once  in  the  market-place  of 
a  city  in  the  Deccan,  listening  to  a 
Christian  Brahman  preach  the  gospel. 
A  student  from  a  college  in  Ceylon 
translated  his  words  for  me  in  excel- 
lent English.  As  the  preacher  spoke 
of  the  nature  of  God,  infinite,  all  good, 
all  wise,  all  loving,  a  Hindu  in  the 
congregation  began  vehemently  to 
contradict.  The  dispute  became  so  hot 
that  it  was  proposed  to  leave  the 
street  and,  entering  a  garden  near  at 
hand,  to  sit  down  under  the  trees  and 
have  the  discussion  to  an  end.  The  sub- 
stance of  it  was  this :  The  Hindu  asked 
the  Christian  as  follows:  "You  declare 
God  to  be  infinite?"  "Yes."  "What  is 
the  meaning  of  'infinite'?"  "It  means 
'limitless.'"  "And  what  part  of  speech 
is  'good'?"  "'Good'  is  an  adjective." 
"And  what  is  the  grammatical  func- 
tion of  an  adjective?"  "To  limit  a 

"5 


C6e  Spirit  of  the  flDriem 


noun."  "How  then  do  you  apply  an  ad- 
jective to  God,  calling  him  good,  and 
thus  limiting  the  limitless?" 

By  this  philosophy,  therefore,  God 
cannot  be  described,  no  adjective  ap- 
plies to  him,  and  we  can  neither  preach 
about  him  nor  urge  any  to  worship 
him.  How  then  can  we  have  anything 
to  do  with  him?  In  the  conversation 
described  above  the  Christian  Brah- 
man took  his  turn  in  asking  ques- 
tions: "You  believe  in  God  as  infi- 
nite?" "Yes,  I  so  believe."  "And  you 
say  that  no  adjective  can  be  applied  to 
him?"  "I  so  affirm."  "How  then  can 
you  distinguish  him  from  nothing?" 
That  becomes  the  question,  how  can 
you  distinguish  him  from  nothing? 
You  cannot  by  logic  or  discourse,  but 
you  may  by  long  processes  of  contem- 
plation or  of  asceticism  bring  yourself 
to  a  place  where  you  will  understand. 
Then  it  will  appear  to  you  that  God  is 
the  only  reality,  and  that  everything 
which  men  regard  as  real  is  an  illu- 
116 


3[n&ia,  its  Spirit  anD  Problems 

sion,— earth,  and  men,  and  sky,  and 
devils,  and  gods,  and  life,  and  death, 
and  my  own  soul,  all  are  such  stuff 
as  dreams,  having  no  real  existence, 
for  that  which  is  is  the  Infinite.  My 
own  existence  is  illusion  like  all  the 
rest,  excepting  as  I  come  to  identify 
myself  with  the  changeless,  timeless, 
limitless,  indescribable  Ultimate  and 
Absolute. 

This,  then,  is  the  height  of  religion, 
but  manifestly  it  is  unattainable  for 
most  people.  Men  with  families,  en- 
gaged in  the  struggle  for  the  lives  of 
those  they  love,  believe  that  wife  and 
children  and  parents  and  neighbors 
and  their  own  selves  are  real.  It  is  only 
by  withdrawal  from  all  these  that  a 
man  may  convince  himself  at  last  af- 
ter years  of  rigid  discipline  that  no- 
thing exists  but  God.  So  the  common 
people  may  be  left  to  their  delusions, 
for  they  cannot  be  led  to  this  true  wor- 
ship of  the  Ultimate  and  the  Absolute. 
Hence,  too,  the  Brahman  who  has  at- 

117 


Cfte  Spirit  of  tbe  Drfent 


tained  salvation  may  with  condescen- 
sion assist  at  the  celebration  of  any 
form  of  service,  since  all  are  alike  true 
or  untrue  to  him. 

To  the  common  people  such  a  man 
is  an  incomprehensible  mystery,  and 
because  incomprehensible  he  is  there- 
fore divine,  for  in  India  the  divine  is 
nothing  else  than  the  mysterious,  the 
incomprehensible  and  the  powerful. 
Mystery  and  power,  these  under  a 
vast  variety  of  forms  are  the  divinities 
of  all  the  people,  of  the  dullest  pea- 
sant as  of  the  highest  scholar;  and 
as  the  philosophic  Brahman  delights 
in  such  disputes  as  I  have  described 
above,  where  the  mind  at  last  is  "in 
endless  mazes  lost,"  so  the  common 
man  loves  his  own  special  brand  of 
the  incomprehensible.  He  looks  up 
with  awe  to  the  men  above  him  and 
worships  them.  At  the  great  Mela  at 
Allahabad,  in  the  triangle  formed  by 
the  junction  of  the  Ganges  and  the 
Jumna,  I  have  seen  lines  of  filthy  as- 
1x8 


3|nDia,  its  Spirit  anD  Problems 

cetics,  naked,  repulsive,  with  foul 
and  matted  hair,  followed  by  com- 
panies of  men  and  women  worship- 
ping them  and  believing  in  their  su- 
perior and  divine  holiness.  Only  let  us 
remember  that  "holiness"  does  not 
mean  of  necessity  uprightness,  but 
attainment  of  supernatural  compre- 
hension and  power. 

Naturally  magic  flourishes.  It  is  sup- 
posed that  man  can  attain  power  over 
the  gods  by  his  rites,  and  stories  are 
told  of  elaborate  plans  formed  by  the 
gods  to  prevent  saints  from  continu- 
ing in  holiness  because  of  the  fear  that 
the  saint  would  become  greater  than 
the  gods  themselves  and  compel  them 
to  do  his  bidding.  Perhaps  the  most 
popular  of  all  the  sacred  books  of  India 
contains  a  long  story  of  the  creation 
of  a  particularly  attractive  and  sen- 
sual universe  for  the  corruption  of  a 
saint  who  had  successfully  resisted  all 
the  temptations  of  our  world. 

As  the  men  of  the  highest  intelligence 

119 


Cbe  Spirit  of  t&e  SDrient 


feel  themselves  forbidden  to  teach  the 
common  people,  they  are  left  to  their 
debasing  superstitions  and  to  a  con- 
fused medley  of  beliefs.  Superstitions 
born  of  yesterday  are  mingled  with 
traditions  three  thousand  years  old; 
relatively  high  and  pure  teachings  of 
God  and  morality  will  be  found  close 
beside  fantastic  and  immoral  cults. 
Any  one  may  found  any  religion  he 
pleases,  and  new  forms  of  belief  are 
set  forth  continuously.  But  after  the 
founder  dies  and  the  enthusiasm  of 
the  first  generation  dies,  the  sect  grad- 
ually gives  up  its  peculiarities  and 
sinks  back  into  the  ordinary  fashions 
of  the  mass  of  the  population.  Within 
this  complicated  mass  of  beliefs  and 
rites  we  may  find  most  of  the  distinc- 
tions and  differences  familiar  to  our- 
selves though  quaintly  expressed :  thus 
believers  in  a  rigid  predestination,  a 
salvation  by  grace,  are  designated  as 
the  kitten  sect,  since  they  are  carried 
to  salvation  as  a  cat  carries  its  kit- 
120 


3lnDia,  its  Spirit  anD 


ten,  by  the  nape  of  the  neck;  while 
believers  in  free  will  and  salvation 
through  our  own  efforts  are  the  mon- 
key sect,  who  are  saved  as  is  the  mon- 
key who  clings  tight  with  his  two  arms 
around  his  mother's  neck.  There  are 
great  denominations  which  believe  in 
a  Creator  who  formed  all  things,  and 
one  which  teaches  that  all  things  flow 
forth  from  God  by  an  eternal  necessity. 
But  while  there  are  resemblances  so 
are  there  differences.  Christians  be- 
lieve in  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  as 
do  the  Hindus,  but  the  contrast  here 
is  striking.  Christians  believe  that  God 
created  man,  and  that  there  was  a 
time  when  we  were  not.  Hindus  be- 
lieve that  the  soul  is  uncreated,  and 
that  it  has  already  existed  forever  as 
it  will  continue  to  live  forever.  Chris- 
tians suppose  that  at  death  the  soul 
enters  "an  eternal  state"  where  it  will 
continue  forever,  but  Hindus  think  of 
death  merely  as  an  incident  in  the  long 
chain  of  endless  changes  which  go  on 

121 


Cbe  Spirit  of  tbe  HDrient 


without  beginning  or  end,  unless  in- 
deed in  rare  instances  some  one  attain 
salvation.  Salvation  to  the  Christian 
means  heaven,  but  to  the  educated 
Hindu  it  means  absorption  in  the  De- 
ity and  the  loss  of  our  individual  exist- 
ence. Save  as  it  finds  this  salvation, 
the  soul  goes  on  and  on  forever,  and 
exists  in  a  vast  variety  of  forms — on 
earth,  in  heaven,  in  hell,  as  god,  devil, 
insect,  animal,  man,  having  all  expe- 
riences and  undergoing  every  possible 
form  of  happiness  and  woe,  though 
on  the  whole  suffering  predominates. 
Thus  a  series  of  stories  about  Buddha 
very  popular  in  Ceylon  represents  him 
as  having  adventures  during  many 
lives,  and  mentions  him  as  living  in  the 
following  existences:  ascetic  eighty- 
three  times;  a  monarch  fifty-eight 
times;  the  divinity  of  a  tree  forty-three 
times;  a  religious  teacher  twenty-six 
times ;  a  courtier,  a  Brahman,  a  prince, 
each  twenty-four  times;  a  nobleman 
twenty-three  times;  a  learned  man 
122 


tti 


3|nDia,  its  Spirit  ana  Problems 

twenty-two  times;  the  god  Sekra 
twenty  times;  an  ape  eight  times;  a 
merchant  thirteen  times;  a  rich  man 
twelve  times ;  a  deer,  a  lion,  each  ten 
times;  the  bird  Hansa  eight  times;  a 
snipe,  an  elephant,  each  six  times;  a 
fowl,  a  slave,  a  golden  eagle,  each  five 
times ;  a  horse,  a  bull,  a  Maha  Brahma, 
a  peacock,  a  serpent,  each  four  times; 
a  potter,  an  outcast,  a  guana,  each 
three  times ;  a  fish,  an  elephant  driver, 
a  rat,  a  jackal,  a  cow,  a  woodpecker,  a 
thief,  a  pig,  each  two  times ;  a  dog,  a 
curer  of  snake  bites,  a  gambler,  a  ma- 
son, a  smith,  a  devil  dancer,  a  scholar, 
a  silversmith,  a  carpenter,  a  water- 
fowl, a  frog,  a  hare,  a  cock,  a  kite,  a 
jungle-fowl,  a  kindura,  each  once.  Of 
course  this  list  makes  only  a  begin- 
ning of  Buddha's  innumerable  lives, 
giving  only  those  of  which  incidents 
have  been  handed  down.  He  was  never 
born  as  less  than  a  snipe,  nor  in  one  of 
the  greater  hells,  nor  as  a  female. 
The  Indian  imagination  delights  in 

123 


Cbe  Spirit  of  tfte  SDrient 


these  extravagances.  Thus  for  a  mea- 
sure of  time:  take  a  cube  of  ten  miles' 
measurement,  composed  of  the  hard- 
est rock,  let  the  woman  who  has  the 
softest  touch  of  all  the  women  in  the 
world  once  in  a  hundred  years  touch  it 
once  with  her  lightest  touch,  using  the 
most  delicate  fabric  known.  Beyond 
all  doubt  each  touch  will  make  some 
impression,  and  when  by  successive 
touches  the  whole  cube  is  worn  away 
to  nothingness  you  have  your  unit, 
with  which  you  can  measure  periods 
which  are  really  long! 
We  may  ask  by  what  is  our  future 
existence  determined,  what  is  the  rule 
and  order  of  our  fate?  And  the  answer 
is  karma.  As  the  Christian  believes  in 
a  God  who  rules  and  by  whose  right- 
eous judgment  men  are  rewarded  or 
punished,  so  the  Hindu  believes  in  an 
invariable  law  (karma)  of  cause  and  ef- 
fect. Every  cause  must  have  an  effect 
and  every  effect  must  have  a  cause. 
Thus,  our  present  life  is  an  effect:  it 
124 


31nt»ia,  its  Qpitit  ana  Problems 

began  to  be  so  many  years  ago,  and  it 
is  happy  or  miserable.  The  cause  must 
be  sought  in  some  former  life.  Because 
we  then  were  virtuous  we  now  are 
happy,  or  because  we  then  were  sinful 
we  now  suffer.  Our  past  deeds  work 
out  their  recompense  now.  In  like  fash- 
ion our  lives  are  causes;  the  deeds  we 
do  shall  live  after  us  and  produce  a  fu- 
ture in  accord  with  them.  Once  happy 
now  because  of  a  good  life  in  the  past, 
we  may  enter  the  next  existence  in  a 
state  of  misery  because  of  our  present 
evil  deeds.  All  we  do  in  life  is  balanced 
at  our  death  and  the  net  result  carried 
to  a  new  account,  or,  rather,  embodied 
in  a  new  form  of  life.  Thus,  the  net 
outcome  of  a  life  may  have  the  value 
of  a  flea,  then  a  flea  will  embody  it;  or 
a  god,  when  a  god  will  enshrine  it. 
When  nqw  the  balance  is  used  up, 
whether  it  be  only  sufficient  for  the  life 
of  a  flea  or  ample  for  the  existence  of 
a  god  in  the  highest  heaven,  or  so  aw- 
ful that  it  means  ages  in  the  lowest 

125 


Cbe  Spirit  of  tbeDtient 


hell,  the  condition  changes,  flea,  god 
or  devil  dies  and  a  new  existence  be- 
gins once  more.  Thus  one  may  go  at 
once  from  heaven  to  hell,  or  from  some 
lower  form  to  a  higher,  though  the 
transitions  are  usually  not  extreme, 
and  it  is  a  toilsome  task  for  one  who 
has  fallen  to  recover  place  and  op- 
portunity again.  Thus  are  explained 
the  inequalities  in  the  present  world : 
Some  good  men  are  miserable  because 
of  evil  done  in  former  life;  they  will 
get  their  reward  by  and  by.  Some  evil 
men  are  prosperous  because  of  virtue 
in  the  former  world,  and  their  punish- 
ment for  the  present  offences  as  surely 
awaits  them  in  the  world  to  come. 
Thus  the  universe  shapes  itself  into 
"three  worlds,"  past,  present  and  to 
come,  instead  of,  as  with  the  Chris- 
tians, the  present  and  the  future.  The 
result  of  this  teaching  is  twofold :  first, 
submit  to  fate ;  your  present  lot  is  the 
result  of  former  deeds;  and  second, 
know  that  existence  is  misery.  Hap- 
126 


3lnDia,  itg  Spirit  ana  Problems; 

piness  may  endure  for  a  season,  but 
surely  evil  comes  as  night  follows  the 
day.  Life,  therefore,  is  wearisome,  and 
the  highest  gospel  is  the  teaching  of 
an  escape  from  our  individual  exist- 
ence. 

We  have  written  of  goodness  as 
holiness,  but  in  the  development  of 
religion  in  India  religion  counts  for 
more  than  ethics.  Forms  and  cere- 
monies, prayers  and  formulae,  espe- 
cially in  unknown  tongues,  the  minis- 
tration of  priests  and  the  maintenance 
of  ceremonial  cleanliness,  are  the  main 
things.  A  woman  touched  by  a  little 
child  in  an  early  morning  hour  cried 
out,  "Poor  me!"  for  she  was  obliged 
to  begin  over  again  the  long  course 
of  ceremonies  almost  completed  and 
necessary  before  she  could  undertake 
her  household  tasks.  A  traveller  who 
bought  an  article  of  food  from  a  vend- 
er at  a  railway  station  and  helped  him- 
self to  his  purchase  had  to  take  the 
whole  stock,  as  his  touch  had  polluted 

127 


Cbe  Spirit  of  t&e  flDrtent 


it.  The  ritual  varies  with  the  different 
cults,  but  the  same  underlying  ideas 
obtain  with  all.  One  form  of  holiness 
is  right  conduct,  but  it  is  not  on  an 
equality  with  ceremony  as  an  approach 
to  God. 

One  may  well  dwell  upon  these  re- 
ligious forms  and  ideas,  for  they  seem 
especially  to  represent  the  spirit  of 
India,  like  a  mental  photograph  of  the 
whole.  As  we  cannot  think  of  our  friend 
without  imagining  his  body,  or  of  it 
save  as  a  symbol  of  him,  as  we  may 
begin  with  either  the  outward  or  the 
inward,  so  interwoven  are  they  in  his 
unity  of  person,  so  it  is  with  this  peo- 
ple. Let  us  then  review  both  sides 
briefly. 

A  vast  continent,  with  varying  scen- 
eries, races,  climates  and  conditions, 
enclosed  by  great  mountains  on  the 
north  and  wide  oceans  on  the  other 
sides,  it  is  a  world  in  itself,  yet  a  world 
unlike  the  rest  of  the  globe,  with  spe- 
cial characteristics  of  its  own.  Its  tem- 
128 


,  its  Spirit  ana  Problems 

perature  is  excessive,  its  dependence 
upon  periodic  rains  extreme,  its  fer- 
tility great.  Its  climate  makes  man  at 
once  submissive  and  irritable,  deadens 
sustained  effort  and  kills  ambition. 
In  it  he  comes  to  an  early  maturity, 
attains  his  measure  soon,  and  rests 
in  a  middle  age  which  is  content  with 
small  success.  Nature  seems  supreme. 
Its  fertility  makes  great  labor  unne- 
cessary, and  also  overpowers  man  so 
that  he  is  helpless  before  beast  and 
jungle,  famine  and  pestilence, — a  land 
where  vegetation  is  grandiose  and 
over-luxuriant,  so  that  humanity  is  in- 
significant notwithstanding  its  mighty 
numbers. 

Here  man  early  reached  a  high  de- 
gree of  civilization.  He  conquered  the 
land,  but  never  thoroughly.  He  wor- 
ships beasts  and  serpents,  and  is  de- 
voured by  them.  He  needs  but  little, 
but  has  never  learned  to  make  the  lit- 
tle certain  so  that  it  can  be  depended 
upon,  but  learns  to  submit  to  forces 

129 


Cbe  Spirit  of  tbe  SDrient 


stronger  than  himself,  accepting  the 
inevitable.  The  population  is  formed 
layer  on  layer,  ancient  peoples  who 
have  made  no  advance  since  the  dawn 
of  civilization  and  other  races  and  peo- 
ples superimposed,  each  with  its  own 
status  and  its  own  degree  of  advance- 
ment. Its  history  is  the  story  of  suc- 
cessive invasions,  of  prodigal  luxury 
for  the  conquerors  and  their  certain 
debasement  until  ready  for  the  coming 
of  some  new  virile  people  who  repeat 
the  same  experience ;  of  a  land  where 
the  lower  accept  their  estate  and  wor- 
ship men  who  are  more  highly  placed ; 
where  dreams  of  equality  and  liberty 
have  never  come,  and  where  the  over- 
hanging and  overpowering  belief  is  in 
fate ;  where  that  which  is  is  that  which 
shall  be,  and  where  there  is  no  desire 
for  any  new  thing  under  the  sun; 
where  none  the  less  man  has  reflected 
profoundly,  considering  the  deepest 
problems  of  life  and  destiny  and  being; 
where  high  social  position  depends 
130 


3lnDia,  its  Spirit  anp  problems 

not  upon  wealth,  nor  power,  nor  intel- 
ligence, but  on  birth ;  where  the  ideal 
is  not  success,  nor  comfort,  nor  fame, 
nor  wealth,  nor  rank,  but  the  mastery 
of  all  outer  circumstances  and  the  su- 
premacy of  the  spirit;  where  asceti- 
cism, philosophy  and  earthly  indiffer- 
ence to  the  world  are  the  attainments 
most  sought.  "My  pundit,"  said  my 
friend  in  Bombay,  "would  not  leave 
his  seat  and  go  to  the  window  to  see 
the  greatest  spectacle  on  earth." 
When  now  we  ask  ourselves  for  the 
specific  problems  for  Indiaand  fortheir 
solution,  we  are  inclined  to  say  these 
things  are  too  great  for  us ;  let  us  leave 
them  to  the  slow  working  of  natural 
laws  and  to  the  direction  of  the  Divine 
Spirit,  ourselves  meanwhile  content 
with  the  different  fate  allotted  to  us. 
But  such  an  answer  would  be  in  har- 
mony with  the  spirit  of  India  and  not 
with  the  spirit  of  the  West,  which 
seeks  to  master  nature  and  to  make 
natural  forces  our  servants.  But  pro- 

131 


Cbe  Spirit  of  tte  flDrient 


test  as  we  may  against  fatalistic  con- 
tent we  are  certain  that  the  man  is 
doomed  who  attempts,  in  Kipling's 
phrase,  to  "hustle  the  East."  True, 
remedies  can  be  found,  but  they  will 
be  slow  in  their  effects,  and  India  can 
solve  the  problems  which  have  been 
caused  by  millenniums  of  existence 
only  by  centuries  of  endeavor.  Here 
will  be  no  instance  of  a  people  born 
in  a  day  or  of  a  regeneration  by  mi- 
raculous transformation.  Here  reform 
contends  against  hoary  traditions,  a 
society  bound  by  custom  which  is 
stronger  than  life,  and  the  forces  of 
material  nature. 

Manifestly  we  begin  with  the  last 
named,  nature.  There  is  no  question 
in  India  of  an  American  social  condi- 
tion, of  villages  with  wide  streets  and 
trim  gardens  and  pleasant  cottages. 
We  cannot  anticipate  a  time  when  the 
laboring  man  shall  earn  a  dollar  and 
a  half  a  day,  and  when  the  man  of 
moderate  circumstances  may  antici- 
132 


3|nDia,  its  Spirit  ano 


pate  a  thousand  a  year.  We  shall  not 
look  forward  to  a  future  when  our  ma- 
chinery of  civilization,  our  houses  and 
furniture  and  clothing  and  food  shall 
be  introduced.  East  shall  continue  to 
be  East,  India  will  not  become  Amer- 
ica, and  in  outward  conditions  there 
shall  continue  to  be  a  great  gulf  fixed 
between  the  two.  Similarity  in  these 
things  is  not  even  desirable.  The  Hin- 
du has  his  own  standards,  and  they  are 
in  accordance  with  his  needs.  He  has 
lessons  for  us,  as  he  shows  how  self- 
respect  can  be  maintained  on  the  mer- 
est fraction  of  that  which  we  regard 
as  essential.  It  would  indeed  be  a  ca- 
lamity were  our  notions  to  prevail  ev- 
erywhere. Surely  his  is  not  after  all 
the  lowlier  ideal,  to  be  rid  of  impedi- 
menta, and  to  seek  highest  satisfac- 
tion not  in  the  abundance  of  things 
he  possesses  but  in  life  itself.  There 
are  times  when  we  may  well  envy  the 
simplicity  and  plainness  of  life  in  the 
great  peninsula. 

133 


Cbe  Spirit  of  tbe  ©rient 


But  admitting  all  this  and  insisting 
upon  it,  still  the  people  may  be  deliv- 
ered from  actual  want,  from  the  pov- 
erty which  does  not  know  what  the 
satisfaction  of  hunger  means,  and  from 
the  recurrent  calamities  which  deci- 
mate whole  sections.  Better  agricul- 
tural methods,  irrigation  on  a  still 
larger  scale,  the  cultivation  of  regions 
which  are  scantily  peopled,  the  ex- 
ploitation of  natural  resources  which 
are  still  untouched,  all  this  and  more 
can  be  accomplished,  so  that  there 
may  be  an  increase  for  ordinary  life 
and  provision  for  years  of  scarcity. 
This  would  require  progress  in  wealth, 
but  at  a  moderate  pace,  with  life  con- 
tinuing upon  the  ancient  lines. 

The  problems  of  government  are 
scarcely  less  arduous.  It  has  always 
been  far  too  expensive,  and  so  it  con- 
tinues in  our  day.  The  British  govern- 
ment has  given  unexampled  peace  to 
the  people,  and  justice.  It  is  incorrup- 
tible and  impartial.  It  studies  the 
134 


,  its  Spirit  anD  Problems 

needs  of  the  people  and  it  seeks  to 
further  their  interests.  In  the  second 
chapter  we  quoted  words  of  high  ap- 
proval from  native  writers.  But  there 
is  another  side.  The  government  is 
terribly  expensive,  and  it  is  foreign. 
British  standards  of  life  cannot  be 
lowered  to  the  native  level,  so  that  sal- 
aries must  be  paid  which  will  main- 
tain the  English  ways  and  which  will 
tempt  competent  men  to  a  life  of  exile. 
Hence  salaries  are  very  high,  with  am- 
ple allowances  and  pensions  and  pay- 
ments to  widows  and  orphans.  The 
home  government  exacts  no  tribute, 
yet  an  immense  amount  of  money  goes 
year  by  year  to  England,  sent  home  by 
English  officials  in  payment  for  Eng- 
lish luxuries  and  necessities.  There  is 
an  army  of  civil  servants  of  foreign 
birth,  and  regiments  of  troops,  who 
are  supported  by  the  native  treasury. 
A  visit  to  the  cantonments  of  a  crack 
British  regiment  astonished  me  at  its 
provision  for  the  needs  of  the  men,  ev- 

i35 


Cbe  Spirit  of  tfte  Orient 


ery  three  soldiers  having  a  native  ser- 
vant. Any  other  policy  would  be  sui- 
cidal; the  foreigner  cannot  live  as  at 
home,  but  the  native  pays  the  bills. 

Besides,  the  foreign  occupation 
crushes  the  native  spirit.  Every  native 
gives  way  to  the  Anglo-Saxon  as  to 
his  conqueror.  White  men  constitute 
a  caste  by  themselves,  and  the  conse- 
quent servility  on  the  part  of  the  men 
who  own  the  land  is  degrading  to  both 
ruled  and  ruler.  In  such  circumstances 
a  vigorous  national  life  is  impossible. 
We  cannot  conceive  of  India  as  com- 
ing forward  to  play  a  great  part  in  the 
future  of  the  world,  as  making  great 
contributions  of  its  own  to  our  science, 
arts  and  literature,  while  its  children 
are  so  humiliated. 

The  solution  would  seem  to  be  an  in- 
creasing measure  of  self-government. 
This  is  demanded  by  a  growing  pub- 
lic sentiment,  and  is  awarded  in  a  de- 
gree by  the  employment  of  natives  in 
the  civil  and  military  service,  yet  only 
136 


3[nDia,  its  Spirit  anD  problems 

in  a  small  degree,  for  the  positions  of 
large  pay  and  influence  are  reserved 
for  white  men.  None  else,  it  is  argued, 
are  capable.  Foreign  writers  complain 
that  even  as  subordinates  native  offi- 
cials are  arrogant  and  corrupt  and  in- 
efficient. Doubtless  there  are  grounds 
for  the  accusation,  but  none  the  less 
India  can  have  a  true  future  only  as 
the  ideal  is  kept  steadily  in  view,  and 
as  the  British  government  recognizes 
its  position  as  one  of  trust,  holding  it 
not  for  glory  nor  for  gain  but  for  the 
interests  of  the  people  and  for  their 
advancement.  The  young  men  must 
be  taught  honesty  and  patriotism. 
There  is  little  yet  of  either.  How  could 
it  be  otherwise  with  the  story  of  the 
past  before  us  and  its  influence  all  per- 
vading among  the  people?  Patriotism 
has  been  impossible,  and  now  it  is  only 
slowly  kindled;  but  without  it  there 
can  be  neither  true  dignity  nor  true  re- 
sponsibility. The  same  great  princi- 
ples obtain  throughout  the  world  in 

i37 


Cfce  Spirit  of  tfie  flDnent 


society  and  in  physics.  Government 
must  be/by  the  people  and  for  the  peo- 
ple; not,  it  is  true,  on  the  pattern  ev- 
erywhere of  England  or  of  the  United 
States,  — as  well  expect  English  coun- 
try houses  and  American  villages  ev- 
erywhere,—but  adapted  to  varying  cir- 
cumstances and  needs.  England  has 
proved  herself  worthy  to  rule.  She  only 
has  made  a  success  of  empires  across 
the  seas.  She  only  has  sent  forth  suc- 
cessions of  noble  and  self-sacrificing 
men  to  serve  her  in  foreign  lands.  But 
to  all  the  rest  she  must  add  the  high- 
est gift  of  all,  the  capacity  and  the 
right  of  self-government.  It  will  be  her 
highest  praise  if  she  can  make  her  rule 
unnecessary  and  bring  at  last  the  day 
when  India  shall  take  its  place  among 
independent  empires. 

But  that  is  in  the  dim  future.  Imme- 
diately there  are  more  pressing  needs. 
We  have  seen  how  small  is  the  per- 
centage of  educated  men  and  how  in- 
finitesimal the  number  of  women  who 
138 


3|nDia,  its  Spirit  ana 


can  read.  The  problem  of  education  is 
almost  the  greatest  at  the  present 
time  —  so  great  that  it  is  baffling  and 
yet  imperative.  Thus  far  the  govern- 
ment has  confined  its  attention  to  the 
training  of  the  few.  Young  men  are 
taught  that  they  may  be  fitted  for  the 
public  service.  Entrance  to  public  life 
is  the  motive  which  sends  the  bright- 
est sons  of  well-to-do  families  to  the 
colleges.  They  are  taught  the  studies 
which  belong  to  our  own  institutions, 
and  acquit  themselves,  as  we  should 
expect,  with  credit.  The  larger  prob- 
lem of  the  masses  is  almost  untouched. 
Yet  while  it  is  unsolved  India  will  con- 
tinue as  it  is,  the  prey  to  superstition 
and  tradition  and  disaster.  Only  en- 
lightenment can  break  the  chains 
which  bind  the  people,  and  make  pos- 
sible for  them  a  glimpse  into  the 
higher  world.  Mission  schools  suc- 
ceed with  the  few;  it  remains  for  the 
government  to  undertake  the  problem 
for  the  mass.  How  shall  this  be  accom- 

139 


Cbe  Spirit  of  tie  Drient 


plished,  whence  shall  come  the  funds, 
the  teachers,  and  how  the  desire  shall 
be  awakened  where  it  does  not  now 
exist,  are  questions  calling  at  once 
for  the  wisest  statesmanship  and  the 
broadest  philanthropy.  Such  an  edu- 
cation, we  need  not  add,  should  not  be 
modelled  upon  our  own.  The  people  of 
India  have  their  own  difficulties  and 
they  should  be  taught  to  meet  them. 
There  are  already  noble  efforts  in  pro- 
gress for  such  training  as  will  fit  them 
for  the  struggle  for  existence,  making 
them  better  farmers,  more  expert  me- 
chanics, and  more  competent  workers 
in  their  various  occupations.  Educa- 
tion thus  answers  the  two  questions 
already  discussed — how  the  people 
shall  be  prepared  for  self-government 
and  how  they  shall  be  relieved  from  the 
burden  of  crushing  poverty.  Science 
is  given  us  for  the  mastery  of  nature, 
to  make  man  at  once  intelligent  and 
free.  Adapted  to  India  it  will  accom- 
plish these  two  tasks.  Man  will  no 
140 


3lnDia,  its  Spirit  anD  Problems 

longer  be  the  prey  of  superstitions, 
surrounded  by  imaginary  foes,  and  he 
will  be  armed  against  his  real  antago- 
nists, learning  how  to  live  to  best  ad- 
vantage and  to  highest  purpose.  Edu- 
cation must  be  the  means  to  all  higher 
ends. 

Religion  we  have  left  to  the  last.  It 
is  the  greatest  problem  of  all  and  the 
most  pressing.  We  are  far  from  advo- 
cating the  introduction  of  a  new  sec- 
tarianism, but  the  most  sympathetic 
review  of  conditions  in  India  must  re- 
veal the  need  for  a  new  gospel.  Very 
much  which  goes  under  the  head  of  our 
own  religion  is  indeed  unnecessary. 
Its  introduction  would  only  bring  fresh 
confusion.  The  Hindus  will  not  accept 
Christianity  as  bound  up  with  our  civ- 
ilization, for  that,  as  we  have  seen,  is 
not  suited  to  their  needs  and  is  repug- 
nant to  their  taste.  Nor  will  they  ac- 
cept our  philosophical  doctrines.  In 
metaphysics  they  are  past  masters, 
and  they  are  not  prepared  to  sit  at  the 

141 


C6e  Spirit  of  t&eDrient 


feet  of  Western  scholars.  But  fortu- 
nately, in  our  day  Christianity  is  re- 
turning to  its  first  simplicity,  and  in 
the  teaching  of  Christ  there  is  neither 
East  nor  West,  but  the  gospel  for  a 
common  humanity. 

Indian  religion  is  a  complex  mass 
of  cult  and  philosophy.  Christianity 
should  be  taught  in  its  simplest  form, 
as  the  Fatherhood  of  God  and  the 
brotherhood  of  man.  As  the  first  it 
will  free  the  people  from  their  bondage 
to  fear,  from  their  superstitions,  from 
their,]  reliance  upon  priests  and  cere- 
monies, and  will  give  each  man  his 
value  as  in  vital  relationship  to  God. 
The  second  will  break  down  caste  and 
exclusiveness,  and  teach  men  not  to 
call  each  other  common  or  unclean 
but  to  recognize  their  common  and 
mutual  relationship  and  duties.  Caste 
isolates  race  from  race,  class  from 
class,  guild  from  guild,  family  from 
family.  Philosophical  religion  com- 
pletes the  isolation  by  separating  the 
142 


3|nDia,  its  Spirit  and  Pro&lems 

individual  and  making  him  seek  sal- 
vation for  himself  in  meditation  or  by 
asceticism.  Christianity  breaks  all  this 
down,  making  service  of  others,  even 
the  outcastes,  the  highest  worship, 
and  bringing  all  men  together  as 
brothers.  It  is  this  inner  regeneration 
which  India  chiefly  needs.  With  it  ac- 
complished, all  that  is  best  will  follow, 
and  we  shall  go  there  then,  not  from 
idle  curiosity,  but  to  learn  the  lessons 
it  can  teach  us,  of  simplicity  and  spir- 
ituality and  the  freedom  of  the  soul 
from  the  trammels  of  the  outer  world. 


V 

Cfcina,  its  people  ana  Customs 


V 

Cljina,  itjj  people  and  Custom* 


ET  us  think  of  the  United 
States  east  of  the  Missis- 
sippi, with  Texas,  Missouri, 
Arkansas  and  Iowa  added, 
filled  with  more  than  three  hundred 
millions  of  inhabitants,  and  we  can 
form  a  picture  of  China.  This  territory 
is  divided  into  eighteen  provinces,  and 
its  chief  physical  features  are  three 
great  rivers,  with  plains,  mountain 
ranges,  hills  in  endless  variety,  and 
boundless  resources.  Besides,  to  the 
northeast  is  Manchuria,  to  the  north 
Mongolia,  and  to  the  west  and  north- 
west Tibet,  Hi  and  Kokonor.  The 
whole  is  under  Chinese  control,  one 
third  of  Asia,  one  tenth  of  the  habi- 
table globe,  constituting  the  greatest 
independent  empire  the  world  has 
ever  known  in  population  and  in  dura- 
tion. 
Its  chief  characteristic  is  isolation. 


Cfce  Spirit  of  t&e  £Dtient 


It  is  bounded  by  mountain  ranges, 
deserts,  pathless  wastes  and  the  broad 
sea.  From  the  dawn  of  history — and 
this  conventional  phrase  here  means 
a  really  immemorial  antiquity — the 
empire  has  been  not  only  free  and 
independent  but  self-contained  and 
self-reliant.  Unlike  India  it  has  never 
known  an  invasion  which  has  modi- 
fied the  customs  or  the  ideas  of  the 
people,  for  although  foreigners  have 
repeatedly  conquered  it,  they  have 
been  powerless  to  influence  the  life  of 
the  people,  but  have  themselves  sub- 
mitted to  ways  and  manners  which 
are  stronger  than  the  most  triumphant 
arms. 

Not  only  has  the  empire  thus  main- 
tained its  solidarity  and  its  traditions, 
but  it  has  preserved  and  strengthened 
its  pride.  Could  we  conceive  of  the 
Mississippi  Valley  in  isolation,  its 
people  having  for  thousands  of  years 
no  vital  connection  with  any  other 
civilized  folk,  rude  Indian  tribes  or 
148 


China,  its  people  and  Customs 

some  semi-civilized  peoples  consti- 
tuting the  world  outside  its  own  boun- 
daries, we  can  understand  how  a  pride 
of  racemight  be  cultivated  which  would 
regard  the  indigenous  type  of  civili- 
zation as  the  only  enlightenment,  and 
all  the  rest  of  the  world  as  barbarous. 
So  in  fact  has  it  been  with  China.  Its 
own  civilization  is  so  ancient  that  its 
origin  is  wholly  lost.  The  people  in 
their  own  thought  have  always  been 
enlightened.  No  great  teachers  ever 
came  to  them  from  other  lands,  no 
adventurous  travellers  brought  back 
from  beyond  the  mountains  or  the  seas 
the  treasures  of  foreign  parts.  Save 
for  a  few  men  who  penetrated  India, 
and  for  the  coming  of  the  Buddhist 
religion,  no  debt  is  acknowledged  to 
any  but  to  themselves.  Thus  the  em- 
pire becomes  "The  Middle  Kingdom," 
the  middle  of  the  earth,  the  centre  of 
enlightenment,  surrounded  with  outer 
darkness  and  a  fringe  of  savages.  We 
must  dwell  upon  this  feature  and  em- 

149 


Cbe  Spirit  of  tfie  HDrient 


phasize  it,  for  it  is  the  key  to  our  ex- 
planation at  once  of  the  institutions 
and  character  of  the  people  and  of  the 
problems  with  which  modern  states- 
manship, science,  philanthropy  and 
missions  must  deal. 

Thus  understood,  we  shall  perceive 
that  the  Chinese  are  not  inherently 
different  from  the  rest  of  mankind. 
For  far  less  reasons  the  Greeks  looked 
down  upon  all  peoples  as  upon  barba- 
rians and  thought  it  a  virtue  to  hate  un- 
reservedly the  foreign  nature.  So  pro- 
vincials the  world  over  have  thought 
themselves  the  elect  of  heaven.  Com- 
mon as  all  this  is,  and  familiar  from 
countless  instances  known  to  our- 
selves, even  among  Americans  with 
all  our  opportunities  for  knowledge  of 
other  localities,  in  China  provincialism 
has  been  made  racial  by  the  situation 
of  the  country  and  by  its  wide  separa- 
tion from  other  favored  sections  of  the 
globe. 

Ten  centuries  ago  China  was  un- 
150 


Cftma,  its  People  anD  Customs 

doubtedly  the  most  civilized  portion 
of  the  world,  and  three  thousand  years 
ago  only  Egypt  and  possibly  India 
could  have  competed  with  it.  But 
while  the  others  have  changed  in  va- 
rious ways,  China  has  remained  the 
same.  Think  of  some  of  its  achieve- 
ments! The  greatest  structure  ever 
reared  by  human  hands  is  the  great 
wall.  It  is  fifteen  hundred  miles  long; 
without  break  it  crosses  valleys,  climbs 
mountains,  clambers  up  the  face  of  pre- 
cipices, and  bounds  an  empire  on  the 
north.  It  was  built  before  the  formation 
of  the  Roman  Empire,  while  it  was  still 
a  republic,  and  while  Christianity  was 
still  unborn,  in  204  B.  C.  Or,  to  take  a 
modern  instance,  while  the  enlight- 
ened peoples  of  Europe  were  still  en- 
gaged with  the  Crusades,  before  gun- 
powder or  the  printing-press  had  been 
invented,  China  built  the  great  canal, 
almost  seven  hundred  years  ago. 
Our  imagination  fails  us  with  such 
numbers.  A  thousand  years  of  Chinese 


Cbe  Spirit  of  tbe  flDrtent 


history  makes  no  impression  upon  us, 
for  they  stand  for  no  events  and  are 
represented  to  our  thought  by  nothing 
distinguished  in  character  or  litera- 
ture. But  to  the  scholar  all  is  different. 
He  learns  to  fill  out  the  centuries  and 
gains  at  least  some  faint  idea  of  their 
magnitude.  He  comes  to  understand 
that  it  has  not  been  quite  a  monoto- 
nous sameness,  but  that  there  have 
been  wise  and  unwise  rulers,  success- 
ful and  inefficient  dynasties,  periods 
of  refinement  with  flourishing  litera- 
ture and  art  and  periods  of  terrible 
and  desolating  warfare.  In  China,  too, 
he  comes  to  understand  there  have 
been  great  sovereigns,  great  novelists, 
great  essayists,  great  historians,  great 
artists.  To  begin  to  master  all  that 
has  been  there  achieved  is  beyond  the 
powers  of  any  man,  and  the  most  that 
an  industrious  student  can  hope  to  do 
is  to  learn  more  or  less  thoroughly 
the  events  of  some  single  period,  or 
to  trace  the  development  of  some 
152 


Cfuna,  its  People  and  Customs 

particular  line  of  science  or  of  art. 
Chinese  encyclopaedias  there  are,  in 
hundreds  of  volumes,  and  histories 
which  seem  interminable,  and  diction- 
aries which  are  terrifying  by  reason 
of  their  size,  and  compendiums,  and 
short  editions  innumerable,  them- 
selves seemingly  long  enough  for  the 
most  industrious. 

But  leaving  this,  let  us  look  over  the 
country  and  note  some  of  its  acquired 
characteristics.  First  of  all  perhaps  is 
the  kind  of  cultivation.  Man  here  has 
developed  a  form  of  agriculture  which 
is  akin  to  gardening,  minute,  thorough, 
utilizing  every  spot  and  space,  so  that 
the  impression  is  not  of  fields  and 
meadows  and  pastures  but  of  little 
plots  as  carefully  tended  as  a  flower- 
box  for  a  window.  There  are  no  flocks 
nor  herds  nor  carriages  nor  pretty 
farmhouses.  Villages  there  are  in- 
numerable. At  a  distance  they  are 
often  attractive,  but  they  will  not  bear 
a  closer  inspection.  The  streets  are 

i53 


C6e  Spirit  of  tfieHDtiem 


very  narrow,  seldom  over  ten  feet  in 
width,  the  houses  are  low,  small  and 
miserable,  and  there  seems  a  total 
lack  of  order,  cleanliness  and,  of  course, 
of  elegance.  There  are  no  parks  nor 
pleasure-grounds  nor  attractive  sub- 
urbs. The  village  begins  and  ends 
suddenly,  and  is  as  cramped  for  space 
as  are  the  cities.  There  are  no  trees 
nor  vines  nor  (not  to  dwell  too  long) 
comforts  without  the  houses  or  within. 
Outside  the  villages  are  the  garden- 
like  fields,  and  roads  stretching  from 
village  to  village  in  all  directions. 
There  are  great  roads,  some  of  them 
paved,  but  all  of  them,  like  the  smaller 
ways,  in  horrible  repair.  This  is  true 
also  of  the  streets  in  the  cities.  Peking 
is  distinguished  for  the  width  of  its 
streets  and  for  their  badness.  It  is  said 
that  after  a  rain  pedestrians  have  per- 
ished in  them,  so  deep  are  the  holes 
and  so  fathomless  the  filth,  while  in 
dry  seasons  the  dust  is  almost  as  ter- 
rible. 


Cfrina,  it0  People  anD  Customs 

The  traveller  in  China  is  repelled  by 
this  view  even  more  than  by  his  so- 
journ in  India.  He  finds  the  adjective 
"Asiatic"  applicable  to  both  and  with 
derogatory  significance.  This  is  per- 
haps deepened  as  he  remembers  the 
imbecility  of  the  people  in  their  con- 
tact with  the  foreign  powers.  India  has 
been  repeatedly  conquered,  and  China 
has  proved  defenceless  against  a  few 
thousands  of  men.  The  same  disorder 
and  lack  of  system  and  contentment 
with  obsolete  methods  are  found  in 
both  war  and  peace,  so  that  our  visitor 
upon  this  brief  inspection  decides  that 
China  is  grotesque  and  impossible. 

It  is  not  easy  to  get  beyond  these  sur- 
face opinions.  It  is  true  there  is  no- 
thing which  corresponds  to  the  caste 
of  India  nor  to  the  vast  variety  of  race 
and  religion  which  makes  the  pro- 
blems there  seem  so  intricate.  The  peo- 
ple of  China  are  remarkably  homoge- 
neous. It  is  true  there  are  differences 
of  race  descent  among  them,  but  as 


€&e  Spirit  of  tfte  Detent 


immigrants  from  different  nations  be- 
come in  a  generation  or  two  indistin- 
guishable in  the  United  States,  losing 
their  differences  in  a  common  likeness, 
so  it  is  in  China.  There,  however,  the 
differences  in  language  are  great,  dia- 
lects differing  so  widely  that  the  na- 
tives of  one  district  cannot  understand 
the  natives  of  another;  but  neverthe- 
less the  homogeneity  is  greater  than 
the  diversity,  for  the  written  language 
in  all  sections  is  the  same,  so  that  all 
Chinamen  study  the  same  books  in  the 
same  way,  write  the  same  styles  of  let- 
ters in  the  same  words,  and  possess 
in  general  the  same  literary,  philoso- 
phical and  religious  ideas.  Further, 
the  homogeneity  is  increased  by  the 
lack  of  hereditary  distinctions  in  rank. 
There  are,  it  is  true,  noble  families  and 
other  families  distinguished  for  centu- 
ries in  various  ways,  but  these  distinc- 
tions do  not  separate  their  possessors 
from  the  people,  and  confer  no  privi- 
leges. Theoretically,  China  is  the  most 
156 


Cbina,  its  People  anD  Customs 

democratic  of  empires,  a  place  where 
all  men  are  equal.  Theoretically,  the 
son  of  the  poorest  peasant  is  on  an 
equality  in  all  respects  with  the  son 
of  the  richest  man,  and  as  a  matter 
of  fact  many  of  the  greatest  men  in 
China  have  come  from  a  humble  par- 
entage and  from  poverty.  Thus  the 
natural  and  artificial  barriers  which 
isolate  in  India  are  wanting. 
This  constitutes  the  first  great  dif- 
ference between  the  two:  India  is 
essentially  aristocratic,  while  China 
both  theoretically  and  practically  is 
democratic.  Why,  then,  cannot  the 
foreigner  easily  and  successfully  learn 
more  of  the  people  than  appears  upon 
the  surface  ?  There  are  reasons  enough. 
One  is  that  the  foreigner  is  often  too 
contemptuous  to  take  the  trouble. 
The  view  already  outlined  is  sufficient 
and  he  abides  with  it.  Another  reason 
is  that  a  real  acquaintance  requires 
great  perseverance  and  persistence. 
It  is  not  only  that  the  language  must 

i57 


C6e  Spirit  of  tbeSDrient 


be  learned, — and  this  is  one  of  the 
severest  tasks  ever  set  man, — but  an 
intricate  system  of  etiquette  and  an 
extended  literature  and  history.  It  is 
only  the  unusually  gifted  foreigner 
who  can  overcome  these  barriers  and 
enter  into  real  intercourse,  as  it  can 
be  achieved  on  no  easier  terms,  and 
therefore  the  number  of  foreigners 
whose  opinion  is  really  valuable  is 
very  small.  We  must  remember  that 
the  Chinaman  looks  down  upon  us 
and  esteems  us  barbarians.  Recalling 
our  own  contempt  for  him,  remember- 
ing his  ill-smelling  streets,  his  horrible 
roads,  his  comfortless  dwellings  and 
his  many  eccentric  ways,  that  he  should 
look  down  upon  Europeans  and  Ameri- 
cans seems  simply  one  more  absurdity. 
But  after  all  it  is  not  absurd,  though 
it  is  undoubtedly  mistaken. 
Let  us  take  up  the  two  items  named, 
language  and  etiquette,  and  try  to 
understand  why  the  foreigner  is  a 
barbarian  to  the  Chinaman.  First,  the 
158 


Cfiina,  its  People  and  Customs 

language:  this  is  the  subject  of  life- 
long study  to  the  educated  man.  The 
little  boy  begins  the  endless  task.  He 
is  taught  profound  respect  for  his 
teacher,  and  is  informed  that  the 
great  sages,  Confucius  and  Mencius, 
before  whose  tablets  he  bows  on  en- 
tering school,  were  teachers.  His 
teacher  is  paid  little  in  money  but 
greatly  in  respect,  and  he  may  punish 
his  stupid  scholars  at  pleasure,  though 
their  parents  would  not  think  of  flog- 
ging them.  With  this  early  reverence 
for  the  teacher  is  joined  a  reverence 
for  books,  so  that  not  a  printed  page, 
or  even  a  scrap  with  printing  upon  it, 
shall  be  treated  with  indignity.  Thus 
from  the  start  letters  are  given  supreme 
place.  Nor  is  this  merely  rhetorical  ex- 
travagance. 

The  boy  in  school  sees  every  one 
giving  place  to  scholars  and  gradu- 
ates, the  presence  of  a  man  with  a 
degree  in  a  village  giving  it  distinc- 
tion. Rich  merchants  pay  large  prices 


C6e  Spirit  of  tbe  Orient 

for  the  honor  of  a  degree,  though  they 
know  that  the  fact  of  its  purchase  de- 
stroys most  of  its  value.  Not  only  is 
social  precedence  given  to  scholar- 
ship, but  there  are  legal  immunities 
as  well.  The  man  who  has  passed  the 
Imperial  Examinations  has  rights  be- 
fore the  law  possessed  by  none  others, 
and  more  than  this,  he  only  is  eligible 
to  any  position  in  the  government.  Not 
rank  nor  riches  but  scholarship  gives 
what  men  everywhere  covet,— pow- 
er, precedence,  privilege, — and  conse- 
quently in  every  village,  with  rare  ex- 
ceptions, is  a  school.  Rich  men  hire  pri- 
vate tutors  for  their  boys,  and  every- 
where there  are  signs  of  the  predomi- 
nance of  learning. 

It  is  true  the  results  are  not  satis- 
factory from  our  point  of  view.  The 
methods  of  instruction  are  slow,  in- 
efficient and  wasteful.  Only  the  bright- 
est succeed,  and  multitudes  of  pupils 
gain  nothing  from  their  arduous  toil. 
For  example,  students  are  required 
160 


Ci)ina,  its  People  atiD  Customs 

to  commit  an  immense  amount  of 
literature  to  memory,  spending  years 
on  the  task,  without  one  word  of  ex- 
planation. As  if  our  primary  student 
should  be  asked  to  commit  the  clas- 
sics—say  Homer  and  Virgil  — from  be- 
ginning to  end  without  any  transla- 
tion or  any  explanation  of  any  diffi- 
culty. Then,  when  at  last  after  years 
the  task  is  ended,  all  is  begun  again 
with  translation  and  commentary, 
the  translation  and  commentary  being 
likewise  committed  to  memory.  Were 
our  students  required  thus  to  commit 
all  the  Greek  and  Latin  poets,  with 
the  classical  prose  authors  in  the  same 
languages,  to  memory,  with,  in  ad- 
dition, minute  comments  by  stand- 
ard commentators,  and  be  prepared 
on  examination  to  begin  at  any  point 
and  write  the  text  with  the  required 
commentary,  and  then  to  add  a  poem 
in  the  classic  style  and  an  essay  ab- 
solutely correct  according  to  the  form 
and  matter  of  the  ancients,  they  would 

161 


Cbe  Spirit  of  tfje  SDtient 


have  a  task  comparable  to  that  set 
the  Chinese  students. 

In  consequence,  some  scholars  fail 
in  the  initial  task ;  they  cannot  remain 
in  school  long  enough  to  commit  their 
authors:  others  are  uhalf  learned," 
that  is,  they  know  their  authors  by 
heart,  but  do  not  in  the  least  appre- 
hend the  meaning,  and  above  these 
are  all  kinds  and  conditions  of  ac- 
quirements. Thus  those  who  fall  out 
by  the  way  have  nothing  of  real  value 
to  show  for  their  expenditure  of  time 
and  labor.  But  the  Chinese  regard  all 
this  as  natural,  for  why  should  not  the 
fit  survive  in  examinations  as  in  na- 
ture, and  the  weak  and  unfit  fall  out 
by  the  wayside?  Besides,  there  are 
competent  scholars  enough,  and  we 
need  not  be  anxious  to  increase  their 
number. 

Nor  are  the  results  with  those  who 
succeed  altogether  beneficial.  In  all  the 
long  course  of  study  absolute  submis- 
sion to  authority  is  insisted  on.  As  the 
162 


C&ina,  its  people  ana  Customs 

teacher  is  honored  next  to  the  parent, 
as  the  printed  page  is  regarded  with 
honor,  so  in  still  higher  degree  are 
the  classic  books  venerated.  All  the 
honor  which  Christians  have  given  to 
the  Bible  is  lavished  upon  the  Chinese 
"Sacred  Books."  In  America  there  are 
thousands  who  treat  the  Bible  with 
scant  respect,  but  in  China  there  is  lit- 
erally none  who  does  not  honor  the 
writings  of  Confucius.  Thus  a  religious 
sentiment  gathers  around  these  books, 
and  they  are  supposed  to  contain  the 
fundamental  truth  of  the  universe  it- 
self and  the  laws  which  must  govern 
mankind.  He  who  obeys  them  is  happy, 
he  who  disobeys  them  is  a  wretch.  The 
welfare  of  the  empire  is  dependent 
upon  conformity  to  the  teachings,  and 
even  nature,  sky  and  earth  and  sea 
are  affected  by  man's  obedience  or  dis- 
obedience to  them.  Moreover,  all  lit- 
erature—essays, poems,  history— is 
filled  with  allusions  to  these  sacred 
writings,  and  even  the  common  talk  of 

163 


Cbe  Spirit  of  t&e  Orient 


educated  men  cannot  be  understood 
unless  we,  like  them,  are  familiar  with 
their  whole  range. 

We  can  understand  now  why  the  or- 
dinary foreigner  appears  like  a  bar- 
barian. He  knows  nothing  of  these 
things.  Even  if  he  "knows  the  lan- 
guage" it  is  only  some  spoken  dialect, 
and  even  if  he  can  read  the  Chinese 
characters  he  does  not  attain  to  liter- 
ary excellence.  Thus,  judged  by  one 
standard,  the  only  standard  known,  he 
fails  abjectly.  And  the  Chinaman  does 
not  value  our  acquirements  in  the 
least.  He  knows  nothing  of  Greek  and 
Latin  and  Hebrew,  nor  of  modern  lan- 
guages nor  modern  science ;  hence  a 
foreigner  may  be  a  marvel  in  all  these, 
and  produces  no  effect  at  all  because 
he  is  ignorant  of  Chinese  literature  and 
the  Sacred  Books. 

Let  us  repeat,  this  learning  is  the  sign 
of  the  gentleman,  it  constitutes  aris- 
tocracy, and  the  foreigner  does  not 
possess  it.  Why,  then,  should  he  be  ad- 
164 


Cbina,  its  People  and  Customs 

mitted  to  the  society  of  gentlemen? 
They  do  not  care  for  his  conversation, 
nor  he  for  theirs,  hence  they  remain 
apart.  But  do  none  break  through  the 
barrier?  Some  dig  through  it.  A  few 
distinguished  foreigners  have  so  far 
mastered  the  task  that  they  have  been 
welcome  guests  with  scholars  and 
have  met  high-placed  graduates  on  an 
equality.  But  in  the  nature  of  the  case 
the  instances  are  few.  Therefore  for- 
eign judgments  on  China  are  not  often 
of  great  value.  What  should  we  think 
of  men  who,  travelling  through  the 
United  States  and  finding  our  food 
unpalatable  and  our  manners  disa- 
greeable, should  superciliously  write 
about  us  on  such  superficial  inspec- 
tion? Or,  without  knowing  our  lan- 
guage or  reading  a  word  of  the  Bible 
or  Shakespeare  or  of  any  of  our  au- 
thors, and  without  meeting  any  of  our 
leading  citizens,  because  our  country 
roads  are  undeniably  bad,  our  railway 
cars  overheated  in  winter,  our  habit 

165 


€6e  Spirit  of  tfce  flDnent 


of  public  expectoration  disgusting, 
should' condemn  us  and  all  our  ways? 
On  a  par  with  such  judgments  are  our 
own  when  we  despise  this  vast  people, 
so  large  a  fraction  of  the  human  race, 
because  they  do  not  conform  to  our 
standards  nor  come  up  to  our  modern 
requirements. 

But  if  the  whole  literary  training  of 
the  Chinaman  secludes  him  from  for- 
eign friendship,  so  does  his  etiquette. 
Probably  with  all  the  world  etiquette 
has  more  influence  than  morals  in  de- 
termining likings.  The  etiquette  is  on 
the  surface  so  that  every  one  must  be 
affected  by  it,  and  if  one  violates  the 
code  in  which  we  are  trained  he  is  a 
boor  to  us.  Now  the  Chinaman  is 
trained  in  etiquette  as  he  is  trained 
in  letters.  Confucius  put  propriety 
among  the  first  virtues,  and  indeed 
it  is  a  moral  accomplishment  to  say 
and  do  the  right  thing  at  the  right 
time.  But  with  Chinese  minuteness 
and  Chinese  patience  and  Chinese  re- 
166 


Cftma,  its  People  anD  Customs 

gard  for  tradition  a  system  has  grown 
up  which  excels  all  competitors  for 
intricacy.  The  Chinese  child  is  trained 
to  it  from  infancy  and  it  becomes  a 
second  nature,  so  that  the  humblest 
does  not  violate  ordinary  rules  of  po- 
liteness, while  the  scholar  is  as  profi- 
cient in  etiquette  as  in  literature.  How, 
then,  shall  aforeigner  become  a  friend? 
He  does  not  know  how  to  enter  a 
room  nor  how  to  leave  it;  he  does  not 
understand  how  to  drink  his  tea  nor 
what  is  the  meaning  of  the  cup  given 
him  as  he  begins  his  call ;  he  does  not 
so  much  as  know  when  he  is  grossly 
insulted,  and  he  insults  his  host  in  fla- 
grant fashion,  in  all  unconsciousness. 
It  is  as  if  some  guest  should  come  to 
an  elaborate  dinner  given  by  one  of  us 
in  his  behalf  and  should  put  his  muddy 
feet  on  the  dining  table,  sitting  with 
his  hat  on  and  his  coat  off.  We  would 
not  invite  him  a  second  time,  nor  will 
the  Chinaman,  as  he  finds  his  foreign 
guest  lacking  in  the  first  rudiments  of 

167 


Cbe  Spirit  of  the  fiDrient 


propriety.  So  again  the  Chinaman  is 
justified,  at  least  to  this  extent,  that 
we  can  understand  his  conduct  and 
recognize  that  his  treatment  of  us  is 
not  essentially  different  from  our  con- 
duct in  like  circumstances. 

It  is  difficult  to  show  how  minute  and 
all-embracing  the  rules  of  conduct  are. 
For  example,  there  is  the  well-known 
story  of  the  American  who  was  em- 
ployed in  the  University  of  Japan  in 
the  old  days  when  Chinese  etiquette 
was  still  maintained  in  that  empire. 
After  a  time  he  was  visited  by  a  solemn 
delegation  of  the  authorities,  who,  af- 
ter much  circumlocution,  asked  him 
what  they  had  done  to  injure  his  feel- 
ings. He  replied  that  they  had  done 
nothing,  but  they  took  his  reply  only  as 
polite  evasion,  and  insisted.  As  really 
his  feelings  had  not  been  hurt  by  any- 
thing, he  was  in  perplexity  and  began 
at  last  to  ask  them  what  he  had  done 
to  indicate  his  annoyance,  whereupon 
it  came  out  that  he  had  appeared  (be- 
168 


Ctrina,  ttg  people  ana  Customs 

ing  really  a  man  somewhat  absent- 
minded  and  indifferent  to  his  dress) 
several  times  in  his  recitation-room 
with  his  shoe-strings  unfastened,  and 
the  authorities  had  supposed  this  a 
quiet  way  of  indicating  that  his  feel- 
ings were  injured.  Or,  to  take  an  oppo- 
site instance :  an  American  long  years 
since  went  to  China  as  a  missionary. 
He  took  up  his  residence  with  a  group 
of  students,  and  learned  at  once  the  lan- 
guage and  native  customs.  Many  years 
after  he  rendered  the  Chinese  govern- 
ment signal  service  and  was  made  a 
mandarin.  When  I  knew  him  he  lived 
in  Japan,  and  he  told  me  that  in  his 
long  residence  in  China  he  had  met 
only  courtesy,  because  versed  in  their 
way  she  rendered  courtesy  where  cour- 
tesy was  due.  When  a  new  Chinese 
minister  came  to  Tokyo  the  American 
would  call  upon  him.  At  the  outer  gate 
he  sent  in  his  ordinary  American  visit- 
ing-card. The  response  came  back, 
"His  Excellency  is  not  at  home."  So 

169 


Cbe  Spirit  of  tfte  flDrient 


the  American  advanced  to  the  inner 
gate  and  presented  an  elaborate  visit- 
ing-card in  Chinese,  and  again  the  re- 
sponse came,  "Not  at  home."  Then  he 
advanced  to  the  door  of  the  residence 
and  presented  his  great  official  visit- 
ing-card inscribed  with  all  his  titles, 
and  the  minister  was  found  at  home 
and  prepared  to  do  him  all  honor.  To 
have  presented  his  official  card  in  the 
first  instance  would  have  been  pre- 
sumptuous. He  must  appear  in  a  pri- 
vate and  modest  capacity,  but  for  the 
minister  to  have  received  him  in  such 
form  would  have  been  to  do  him  a  dis- 
courtesy. The  successive  responses 
were  really  in  the  nature  of  a  command 
to  come  up  higher  and  be  received  in 
a  style  befitting  my  friend's  rank  and 
distinguished  services.  Naturally,  few 
foreigners  have  the  time,  the  patience 
or  the  adaptability  to  learn  so  elabo- 
rate a  code  and  one  so  adapted  to  all 
the  contingencies  of  a  strange  life.  Eti- 
quette in  China  is  little  less  elaborate 
170 


Cfcma,  it*  people  anu  Customs 

and  perplexing  than  is  religious  rite  in 
India.  In  both  we  have  illustrations  of 
the  methods  in  which  men  bind  them- 
selves with  artificial  codes  and  make 
life  burdensome  by  their  own  tradi- 
tions. However,  there  comes  a  time 
when  even  such  a  code  becomes  a  sec- 
ond nature,  and  its  lack  is  felt  as  if 
something  essential  were  missing. 
So  again  we  have  found  that  first  ap- 
pearances are  deceitful.  China  looked 
to  us  systemless,  untidy,  without  ele- 
gance and  repulsive,  but  already  we 
have  gained  a  certain  respect  for  the 
people.  It  is  a  great  accomplishment 
to  make  scholarship  supreme  and  to 
honor  letters  beyond  rank  or  wealth, 
and  this  not  by  a  class  of  students 
but  literally  by  all  the  people — by  mer- 
chants, officials  and  even  coolies  no 
less  than  by  students  and  authors. 
Then,  too,  it  is  no  mean  accomplish- 
ment to  get  a  code  of  etiquette  recog- 
nized everywhere  so  that  every  one 
may  know  the  right  thing  to  do  and 

171 


Cfje  Spirit  of  t&e  HDtient 


say  at  the  right  time.  Such  a  people 
surely  do  not  merit  contempt,  but  on 
the  contrary  may  rightly  lay  claim  to 
a  high  degree  of  civilization.  Nor  can 
we  altogether  wonder  that  our  West- 
ern civilization  appears  to  them  not 
attractive.  As  the  Hindu  supposes  that 
Occidentals  are  given  to  the  comforts 
of  material  civilization  while  he  seeks 
the  joys  of  religion,  so  the  Chinaman 
fancies  that  we  give  first  place  to 
wealth  and  to  force,  while  he  honors 
literature  and  morals,  including  eti- 
quette in  morals. 

Nor  has  his  regard  for  morality  been 
merely  outward.  Long  before  the 
Christian  era  a  Chinese  emperor  de- 
clared, "The  Empire  is  peace!"  and  on 
the  whole  the  declaration  is  true. 
Peace  is  the  ideal  of  the  Chinaman, 
and  war  an  abhorrent  interruption  of 
the  course  of  nature,  like  a  typhoon  or 
an  earthquake.  We  must  have  sol- 
diers, as  we  must  have  policemen,  but 
they  are  not  held  in  distinguished  es- 
172 


Cfiina,  its  People  anD  Customs! 

teem.  A  general  is  by  no  means  the 
equal  of  a  subordinate  civil  official, 
and  the  latter  always  and  everywhere 
takes  precedence.  To  be  put  into  the 
military  service,  even  though  with 
several  steps  of  advancement,  is  a  de- 
gradation and  a  punishment  for  a  mem- 
ber of  the  civil  service.  War  is  a  crime, 
and  only  because  there  are  criminals 
must  there  be  soldiers,  is  the  Chinese 
principle,  a  principle  which  surely  is 
nearer  Christian  teaching  than  like 
Christian  practice. 
War  in  China  has  been  terrible.  For 
the  most  part  it  has  been  either  the 
savage  incursion  of  barbarian  hordes, 
without  mercy  or  reason,  or  it  has 
been  the  outbreak  of  rebellion  when 
the  people  have  risen  in  mobs  and 
have  killed  and  slain  without  discrimi- 
nation or  limit.  Hence  in  both  in- 
stances war  appears  as  a  species  of 
insanity,  as  indeed  it  is.  Whereas  the 
Chinaman  loves  peace,  when  he  is 
stirred  to  war  he  is  at  once  savagely 

i73 


Cbe  Spirit  of  tje  SDrient 


cruel  and  an  arrant  coward.  In  a  mob, 
with  some  village  or  town  at  his  mercy, 
he  will  commit  deeds  of  the  most  hor- 
rible description,  while  as  an  individ- 
ual, or  on  occasions  when  heroism  is 
required,  he  proves  lacking  in  courage. 
This,  however,  is  in  part  at  least  be- 
cause of  his  training.  It  is  said  that 
when  the  French  attacked  the  Chinese 
fleet  at  Foochow  in  1884,  the  Chinese 
commander  remembered  that  he  had 
an  invitation  to  dinner  on  shore  and 
left  his  ship  to  keep  his  engagement. 
On  the  other  hand,  General  Gordon 
(the  famous  "Chinese"  Gordon),  com- 
mander of  the  "ever  victorious  army," 
declared  that  the  Chinese  needed  only 
good  leaders  and  they  would  be  excel- 
lent soldiers,  an  opinion  borne  out  by 
the  testimony  of  many  competent  ob- 
servers. But  however  that  may  be,  an 
empire  has  claims  upon  our  admiration 
which  for  three  thousand  years  has 
honored  peace  and  has  given  war  its 
true  place  as  an  alien  element  to  be 
i74 


Cbina,  its  People  anD  Customs 

banished  from  the  thoughts  and  the 
lives  of  reasonable  men. 
Again,  we  shall  not  permit  our  first 
view  of  China  to  blind  us  to  another 
admirable  quality  in  the  people,  their 
persistent  industry.  We  sometimes 
hear  of  the  birth,  youth,  maturity  and 
old  age  of  nations.  But  here  is  a  peo- 
ple which  was  born  before  history  be- 
gan, and  is  still  in  full  virility.  As  we 
have  noted,  they  built  the  great  wall 
two  thousand  years  ago,  and  they  are 
still  capable  of  prolonged  and  persist- 
ent exertion  and  of  the  greatest  en- 
terprises; indeed,  under  competent  di- 
rection, there  is  nothing  which  they 
may  not  attempt.  All  China  is  filled 
with  patient  industry.  Beggars  there 
are,  as  everywhere,  but  idleness  is  not 
held  in  honor.  It  is  not  exalted  in  vir- 
tue into  holiness  as  with  the  ascetics 
of  India,  for  the  practical  ideal  of 
China  is  plodding,  continuous  toil. 
Much  of  it  is  misdirected,  it  is  true.  As 
in  India,  conservatism  has  hindered 

i75 


€&e  Spirit  of  tbe  Drtent 


improvements  and  has  added  terrible 
burdens  to  the  task  of  gaining  a  live- 
lihood. Almost  everything  is  done  at 
the  hardest,  for  man  has  only  his  un- 
assisted strength,  using  cattle  spar- 
ingly, and  is  not  master  yet  of  steam 
and  electricity.  His  toil  procures  for 
him  the  simplest  of  livings,  but  there- 
with he  is  content,  loving  his  home, 
his  family,  his  neighborhood,  and  tak- 
ing his  lot  as  it  is  given  him.  With  him 
too,  as  with  the  natives  of  India,  the 
universe  is  a  vast  complex  organism, 
and  he  is  an  infinitesimal  portion  of  it. 
He  must  move  with  its  currents,  and 
where  he  is  there  shall  he  abide. 
Have  we  not  modified  somewhat  our 
judgment?  This  untidy,  inelegant, 
comfortless  land  is  not  so  uninviting 
after  all,  unless  we  be  indeed  barba- 
rians and  put  material  satisfaction  as 
first  and  last  the  only  essential.  A  peo- 
ple which  honors  literature  and  mor- 
als and  lives  under  an  elaborate  code 
of  etiquette,  which  glorifies  peace  and 
176 


Ctrina,  us  people  and  Customs 

despises  war,  which  rejoices  in  indus- 
try and  is  content  with  its  lot,  must 
merit  something  better  than  contempt 
or  an  amused  smile  at  their  strange- 
ness. "Why,"  once  asked  the  distin- 
guished Professor  Tholock  of  an  Am- 
erican student,  "did  the  Lord  make  so 
many  Chinamen  and  so  few  Germans  ?  " 
I  do  not  know  what  answer  was  given, 
but  the  truth  doubtless  is  because  He 
wanted  them.  They  too  have  their  place 
on  the  earth,  which  does  not  belong  to 
Germans  nor  to  Americans,  and  their 
claims  upon  esteem  and  admiration 
and  respect.  They  too  are  near  our  Fa- 
ther, and  are  His  children  with  their 
inheritance  in  His  love  and  favor. 


VI 


C6ma,it0  Spirit  anD 


VI 

(t0  ^pfrtt  ann  problems 

HE  Chinese  social  organism 
is  at  once  the  most  primitive 
and  the  most  democratic  in 
civilized  states.  Yet  its  de- 
mocracy is  not  according  to  our  type. 
Our  system  is  based  upon  the  value 
of  the  individual,  but  the  Chinese  unit 
is  the  family.  This  modifies  the  whole 
structure.  With  us,  when  a  man  at- 
tains maturity  he  establishes,  if  he 
will,  an  independent  household,  or  if 
he  will  he  continues  single.  In  China 
he  does  neither  the  one  nor  the  other, 
for  marriage  is  not  a  matter  of  his  will 
but  is  arranged  for  him.  Very  likely 
he  was  betrothed  in  infancy  or  early 
childhood,  and  although  the  Hindu 
system  of  early  marriages  does  not  ex- 
ist in  China,  long  before  the  boy  is  his 
own  master  he  may  have  a  wife.  In- 
deed he  is  never  his  own  master,  for 
he  is  born  into  a  network  of  relations, 

181 


€be  Spirit  of  tbe  £Dtient 


and  continues  in  them  all  his  days. 
When  he  marries  he  brings  his  wife 
home,  or  rather  she  is  brought  to  him, 
to  his  father's  house,  where  she  be- 
comes a  kind  of  servant  to  his  mother. 
The  bride's  relation  to  her  mother-in- 
law  is  far  more  important  to  her  than 
is  her  relationship  to  her  husband,  for 
her  subjection  continues  so  long  as  his 
mother  lives,  and  she  comes  to  a  place 
of  importance  only  when  at  last  her 
son  brings  a  daughter  home.  After  a 
time  the  family  comes  to  constitute 
a  kind  of  clan,  and  the  home  grows 
into  a  village,  so  that  there  are  very 
many  villages  where  all  the  inhabitants 
have  the  same  family  name.  When  the 
immediate  family  connection  has  so 
broadened  that  the  sense  of  kindred 
is  lost,  the  village  remembers  still  its 
origin  and  remains  a  little  self-govern- 
ing state. 

The  father  of  a  family  has  very  large 
powers  and  very  large  responsibili- 
ties. As  the  family  is  the  unit,  when 
182 


CJrina,  its  Spirit  ana 

one  member  suffers  all  suffer  with  it. 
If  one  commits  a  crime,  the  entire  fa- 
mily may  be  punished,  and  even  if 
the  actual  culprit  escape,  his  parents 
will  suffer  in  his  stead,  while  if  he 
is  caught,  they  too  may  be  punished 
with  him,  according  to  the  gravity  of 
the  offence.  We  must  go  back  to  the 
stories  in  the  Pentateuch  and  in  Jo- 
shua for  familiar  descriptions  of  a  sim- 
ilar state  of  things.  As  the  family  thus 
suffers  with  all  its  members,  so  does 
it  share  in  the  prosperity  of  each.  No 
one  is  rich  for  himself.  If,  for  example, 
a  son  gains  the  coveted  degree  which 
admits  him  to  the  public  service,  and 
obtains  in  time  a  lucrative  post,  a 
swarm  of  relatives  will  follow  him  and 
surround  him.  He  must  provide  for 
them  all,  making  nepotism  a  matter  of 
course.  Nor  does  he  ever  become  pre- 
cisely his  own  master,  even  though 
he  grow  to  be  the  head  of  the  family,  for 
he  is  still  bound  by  custom  and  tradi- 
tion and  public  opinion.  These  com- 

183 


Cbe  Spirit  of  tfte  Drient 


bine  to  form  a  force  which  can  be  de- 
fied only  by  the  boldest  and  the  most 
strong-willed.  Especially  must  the  son 
honor  his  parents.  This  is  the  central 
commandment,  and  it  is  enforced  by 
endless  stories  of  obedient  sons,  some 
of  which  would  seem  to  indicate,  mis- 
takenly however,  that  the  Chinese 
have  no  sense  of  humor.  For  example, 
it  is  gravely  related  of  one  good  boy 
that  he  still  dressed  in  baby  clothes 
when  a  grown  man,  and  when  asked 
the  reason  for  his  course  replied  that 
he  could  not  think  of  dressing  like  a 
man  lest  he  should  cause  his  parents 
to  grieve  over  their  advancing  years ! 
In  many  places  memorials  are  set  up 
by  the  authorities  in  honor  of  a  son  or 
a  daughter  who  has  been  an  example 
of  "great  filial  obedience." 
Next  to  these  duties  to  one's  parents, 
which  exceed  all  others  in  importance, 
come  one's  duties  to  his  brothers,  and 
then  to  his  wife,  and  finally  to  his 
friends.  But  the  wife  occupies  in  the 
184 


C&ina,  its  Spirit  ana 


code  a.  subordinate  position,  and  she 
has  any  real  position  only  as  the  mo- 
ther of  the  children  who  are  to  con- 
tinue the  family  line.  For  the  extinc- 
tion of  the  family  is  a  calamity  of  the 
greatest  magnitude,  since  in  it  the 
Chinaman  lives  and  moves  and  has  his 
being.  He  who  is  cut  off  from  it  is  an 
outcaste  and  a  vagabond.  There  is  no 
new  circle  which  he  can  enter,  since 
all  are  constructed  on  the  same  plan 
and  have  no  opening  for  strangers  and 
foreigners,  save  possibly  as  infrequent 
guests.  The  economical  position  is 
none  the  less  serious  for  the  man  with- 
out a  home:  all  occupations  are  filled, 
and  there  are  no  vacancies.  The  Chi- 
nese are  past  masters  in  the  art  of 
combination,  so  that  our  labor  unions 
seem  very  amateurish  in  comparison. 
Thus  so  long  as  a  man  moves  along 
with  the  system  all  is  well,  but  woe  to 
him  if  he  steps  out. 
Then,  in  addition,  all  the  associations 
which  hallow  life  are  concentrated 

185 


C6e  Spirit  of  tJjeDrient 


about  the  family.  It  is  thought  of  as  a 
corporate  whole  to  which  belong  not 
only  the  living  but  the  dead,  and  these 
are  so  connected  that  the  suffering  or 
the  welfare  of  the  living  affects  the 
dead,  and  if  one  break  the  family  line 
all  the  ancestors  are  in  distress.  To 
worship  or  do  reverence  before  the 
ancestral  tablet  is  far  more  than  all 
other  religion,  so  that  the  man  who 
has  separated  from  his  family  has  lost 
his  gods  as  well  as  his  living  relatives. 
A  young  man  once  came  to  my  house 
in  Tokyo  in  great  grief.  He  had  been 
for  years  in  New  York,  where  he  had 
prospered  until  at  last  he  could  return 
to  his  home  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Canton.  He  had  become  a  Christian, 
but  as  soon  as  he  entered  his  mother's 
house  she  took  him  to  the  ancestral 
tablets  and  asked  him  to  worship  them. 
He  refused,  and  she  in  wrath  and  hor- 
ror drove  him  from  her  door.  It  was 
almost  night,  but  not  a  person  in  the 
village  would  take  him  in  or  give  him 
186 


CSina,  its  %pmt  anD 


a  mouthful  of  food,  and  he  was  obliged 
to  go  many  miles  to  a  village  where 
his  people  were  wholly  unknown,  be- 
fore he  could  find  a  refuge.  When  I 
saw  him  he  was  on  his  return  to  Amer- 
ica, since  residence  in  China  had  be- 
come impossible  for  him. 

The  Chinaman,  therefore,  is  not  natu- 
rally an  emigrant.  All  his  ties  and  af- 
fections keep  him  in  the  locality  where 
he  was  born.  He  knows  nothing  and 
cares  nothing  for  the  world  beyond. 
He  does  not  wish  to  travel  through 
China  and  still  less  to  foreign  lands.  It 
is  only  stern  necessity  which  drives  so 
many  thousands  to  expatriate  them- 
selves, and  this  is  only  for  a  time  and 
with  the  fixed  resolve  to  return  home 
when  circumstances  shall  favor  them. 

In  the  villages  the  elders  rule.  They 
may  be  in  fact  the  old  men,  or  they 
may  be  young  men  of  vigor  and  enter- 
prise. Sometimes  they  are  elected,  and 
sometimes  they  simply  take  the  of- 
fices. A  multitude  of  affairs  come  be- 

•  187 


Cfce  Spirit  of  t&e  Orient 


fore  them,  for  the  community  is  only 
a  larger  family  and  it  settles  its  own 
matters.  It  is  only  when  a  feud  breaks 
out  between  adjacent  villages,  or  when 
in  the  community  matters  become  un- 
controllable, that  the  officers  of  the  law 
are  called  in.  But  so  long  as  there  are 
no  riots,  and  the  taxes  are  paid  with 
reasonable  promptness,  the  Imperial 
Government  has  nothing  to  do  in  the 
premises.  It  is  therefore  looked  upon 
as  a  last  resort,  and  with  reason,  for 
when  a  matter  is  referred  to  the  courts 
for  settlement  it  is  in  desperation, 
when  the  appellant  is  ready  for  ruin, 
since  in  all  probability,  whatever  the 
rights,  both  parties  will  be  stripped  of 
their  possessions  and  punished. 

It  follows  that  there  is  nothing  like 
loyalty.  Again  and  again  invading  ar- 
mies have  been  astonished  at  the  readi- 
ness of  the  people  to  serve  them.  If  the 
pay  were  good  and  prompt  the  people 
showed  a  strange  impartiality.  They 
have  no  patriotism  for  China  and  no 
188 


Cinna,  its  Spirit  ana  pcoftlemg 

affection  for  the  Emperor,  who  is  as  a 
god  far  away  in  Peking,  inaccessible 
and  unimaginable.  During  the  recent 
wars  missionaries  have  reported  the 
total  lack  of  interest  in  the  news,  the 
peasant  not  caring  who  fought  or  who 
won,  so  long  as  the  conflict  was  at  a 
distance  from  his  fields. 
If  we,  however,  were  to  live  in  the 
capital,  the  government  would  assume 
high  importance,  or  if  we  were  edu- 
cated and  had  passed  our  examina- 
tions. Without  legislature  or  supreme 
court  the  power  centres  in  the  Em- 
peror, but  he  is  not  an  autocrat,  for  he 
must  rule  according  to  precedent  and, 
above  all,  in  accordance  with  the  code 
handed  down  from  antiquity  under  the 
name  of  Confucius.  The  theory  is  that 
he  rules  by  his  virtue,  standing  as  re- 
presentative of  the  people  before  Hea- 
ven and  responsible  to  it.  Nor  is  he 
above  human  censure,  since  there  are 
specially  appointed  officials  whose 
duty  it  is  to  reprimand  him  when  he 

189 


€5e  Spirit  of  t&e  Orient 


wanders  from  the  straight  and  narrow 
way.  Difficult  as  is  this  duty,  it  has 
been  faithfully  performed  times  innu- 
merable by  upright  and  truth-loving 
men.  I  quote  from  "The  Middle  King- 
dom:" 

uThe  celebrated  Sung,  who  was  ap- 
pointed commissioner  to  accompany 
Lord  Macartney,  once  remonstrated 
with  the  Emperor  Kiaking  upon  his  at- 
tachment to  play-actors  and  to  strong 
drink,  which  degraded  him  in  the  eyes 
of  his  people  and  incapacitated  him 
from  performing  his  duties.  The  Em- 
peror, highly  irritated,  called  him  to 
his  presence,  and  on  his  confessing  to 
the  authorship  of  the  memorial,  asked 
him  what  punishment  he  deserved. 
He  answered,  'Quartering.'  He  was 
told  to  select  some  other:  'Let  me  be 
beheaded;'  and  on  a  third  command, 
he  chose  to  be  strangled.  He  was  then 
ordered  to  retire,  and  the  next  day  the 
Emperor  appointed  him  governor  in 
Hi,  thus  acknowledging  his  rectitude, 
190 


Cfjina,  it0  Spirit  ana 


though  unable  to  bear  his  censure." 
The  story  illustrates  the  old  Chinese 
saying,  "The  position  of  the  Censor 
is  more  dangerous  than  is  that  of  the 
foremost  spearman  in  battle."  The 
Emperor  sometimes  publicly  assumes 
responsibility  for  the  evils  in  his  do- 
minion, in  accordance  with  the  word 
of  Confucius,  "If  you  hear  of  evil  ex- 
amine self." 

Below  the  Emperor  are  the  great  de- 
partments of  state,  —  the  Cabinet,  the 
General  Council  of  State,  the  Board 
of  Civil  Office,  the  Board  of  Punish- 
ments, the  Board  of  Works,  the  Colo- 
nial Office,  the  Censorate,  the  Court  of 
Transmission  (a  means  of  communi- 
cation with  provincial  authorities),  the 
Court  of  Judicature  and  Revision,  and 
the  Imperial  Academy.  These  various 
bodies  are  intrusted  with  the  control 
of  a  great  body  of  officials,  and  through 
them  with  the  entire  empire.  But  all 
must  rule  in  accordance  with  the  great 
code  which  is  supposed  to  cover  all 

191 


C6e  Spirit  of  t&e  fiDrtem 


contingencies.  It  is  in  six  sections: 
general,  fiscal,  ritual,  military,  crim- 
inal and  Public  Works.  It  is  de- 
scribed as  "on  the  whole  reasonable 
and  common  sense,  though  not  indi- 
cating a  very  high  social  develop- 
ment." It  fits  the  conditions  of  the 
people,  and  the  result  is  that  there  is 
little  discontent  and  no  thought  of  re- 
formation or  revolution.  The  system 
is  as  the  laws  of  nature,  and  the  peo- 
ple do  not  complain  of  it.  The  only  dis- 
satisfaction is  with  the  officials  and 
their  fashion  of  enforcement  of  the 
laws. 

Doubtless  there  are  thousands  of 
honest  officials,  and  they  must  not  be 
judged  by  our  standards,  for  "graft" 
is  a  part  of  the  system.  So  it  is  in  all 
departments  of  life.  The  new-comer 
from  America  perhaps  rebels.  He  will 
not  submit  to  a  system  where  there 
are  not  only  tips  constantly  but  where 
every  one  takes  a  "squeeze,"  every- 
thing which  he  buys  paying  its  per- 
192 


CWna,  it0  Spirit  anti  Problems 

centage  to  his  household.  But  by  and 
by  he  recognizes  his  powerlessness. 
Even  if  he  make  his  purchases  him- 
self, his  servants  take  toll  when  they 
are  delivered  at  his  door,  and  even  if 
he  carry  them  home,  in  one  way  or  an- 
other the  place  of  purchase  is  discov- 
ered, and  the  seller  hands  over  the 
commission.  With  such  a  system  per- 
vading life  it  is  not  wonderful  that 
official  circles  make  all  that  the  "busi- 
ness will  bear."  The  governor  of  a  pro- 
vince is  paid  a  salary  which  is  ab- 
surdly small,  not  more  perhaps  than 
he  pays  his  cook,  and  yet  after  a  few 
years  he  retires  rich,  and  besides,  has 
made  the  fortune  of  a  multitude  of  re- 
lations. All  this  within  a  degree  is 
looked  upon  as  a  matter  of  course,  and 
it  is  only  when  the  graft  becomes  un- 
usually large,  so  that  there  is  an  in- 
crease in  the  burdens  of  the  people, 
that  there  is  trouble.  The  patience  of 
the  common  people  is  very  great,  but 
it  has  its  limits.  As  in  private  affairs 

i93 


Cbe  Spirit  of  tbe  Drtent 


there  comes  a  time  when  an  individual 
is  ready  to  be  ruined  himself  if  only  he 
may  injure  his  adversary  and  so  goes 
to  law,  there  is  also  a  time  when  the 
people  throw  all  patience  and  caution 
and  prudence  to  the  winds  and  rise  in 
frantic  mobs  to  protest  against  mis- 
government,  and  then  beware!  The 
Chinaman  is  the  most  matter-of-fact, 
practical,  phlegmatic  of  individuals, 
until  he  explodes,  and  then  he  seems 
crazed,  irresponsible,  cruel,  danger- 
ous, ready  to  go  all  lengths  and  to  de- 
stroy himself  with  his  enemies.  Right- 
fully, considering  the  character  of  the 
people,  the  governors  are  required  to 
maintain  order,  it  being  taken  for 
granted  that  they  are  to  blame  if  dis- 
order arises.  This  too  is  in  accord  with 
the  Confucian  teaching,  which  sup- 
poses that  if  the  rulers  are  virtuous 
the  people  will  be  not  only  happy  but 
good,  and  hence  that  if  the  people  are 
rebellious  the  rulers  must  be  to  blame. 
Nor  am  I  aware  that  the  teaching  has 
194 


Cfrina,  its  Spirit  and  Problems 

been  disproved  by  facts  in  the  long 
course  of  Chinese  history. 

The  social  morality  is  equal  to  that 
of  Europe.  It  is  true  that  the  idea  of 
the  family  is  different.  A  man  may 
have  not  only  a  wife  but  concubines, 
and  in  some  instances,  if,  for  example, 
his  wife  has  no  children,  he  must  have 
them.  But  if  we  condemn  this  as  im- 
moral we  must  also  condemn  Abra- 
ham, Isaac  and  Jacob,  to  say  nothing 
of  David  and  Solomon.  It  is  another 
social  organism,  accepted  and  main- 
tained with  all  propriety.  Indeed,  as 
we  have  seen,  the  Chinese  are  beyond 
all  others  sticklers  for  propriety.  They 
regard  us  as  immoral  because  men 
and  women  meet  freely  and  even  are 
seen  on  the  street  together,  whereas 
Chinese  etiquette  forbids  brothers  and 
sisters  to  so  much  as  touch  hands  af- 
ter an  early  age. 

Perhaps  the  most  outstanding  fea- 
ture of  Chinese  life,  next  to  its  indus- 
try, is  its  monotony  and  vacuity.  Years 

i95 


Cbe  Spirit  of  tbe  SDtient 


ago  I  met  a  very  wealthy  Chinaman 
on  a  steamer  going  from  Hong-Kong 
to  Penang,  where  was  his  home.  He 
was  a  mandarin,  having  purchased  his 
degree  as  he  told  me  without  hesita- 
tion, and  was  consul  in  Penang.  He 
had  been  making  his  yearly  visit  to 
his  parents  in  Canton.  I  asked  why  he 
did  not  return  to  Canton  and  make  it 
his  permanent  home.  He  replied,  "I 
cannot  afford  to,"  and  upon  an  ex- 
pression of  astonishment  he  went  on: 
"All  the  officials  know  that  I  am  rich, 
and  if  I  were  to  return  I  should  be 
obliged  to  give  most  of  my  wealth  to 
them.  Were  I  to  refuse  they  would 
arrest  me  on  any  charge,  and  I  could 
not  escape  from  prison  without  satis- 
fying their  demands.  You  know  that 
the  Chinese  call  the  prison  'Hell,'  and 
it  deserves  the  name.  Besides,  in  Can- 
ton there  is  nothing  to  do.  In  Penang 
I  keep  my  carriage  and  drive  every 
day,  I  have  my  club  and  all  I  wish  in 
the  way  of  amusement.  In  Canton 
196 


Ctnna,  its  Spirit  ana  Problems 

there  is  nothing  which  attracts  me." 
His  story  illustrates  at  once  the  way  of 
the  officials  and  the  dulness  of  life.  If 
he  could  find  nothing  to  do,  still  less  can 
the  common  people  find  amusement. 
Their  lives  of  toil  have  few  pleasures ; 
theatres,  story-telling,  Punch  and  Judy 
shows,  weddings,  funerals,  feasts,  the 
fortnight  holiday  at  New  Year's,  about 
exhaust  the  list.  And  these  are  infre- 
quent and  uncertain  save  the  last. 
Then  the  whole  empire  makes  holi- 
day. All  debts  are  supposed  to  be  paid 
by  the  end  of  the  previous  twelfth- 
month,  or  if  not  paid,  escaped  for  an- 
other year  (though  a  story  is  told  of 
one  creditor  who  sought  his  debtor 
in  broad  daylight  on  New  Year's  Day 
with  the  light  of  a  lantern,  thus  keep- 
ing up  the  fiction  that  it  was  the  night 
before,  as  our  congressmen  turn  back 
the  hands  of  the  clock  to  lengthen, 
like  Joshuas,  the  length  of  the  natural 
day).  So  with  free  minds  the  people 
give  themselves  over  to  pleasure,  es- 

197 


Cbe  Spirit  of  the  Drtem 


pecially  to  feasting  and  to  gambling. 
The  latter  is  the  national  vice,  recog- 
nized as  such,  but  at  this  festive  sea- 
son even  the  most  virtuous  women  in- 
dulge themselves  in  its  excitement. 
But  for  the  most  part  it  is  on  the  small- 
est scale,  for  the  people  are  very  poor. 
There  are  thousands,  tens  of  thou- 
sands of  families  whose  total  posses- 
sions are  not  worth  five  dollars  each, 
and  multitudes  more  who  do  not  know 
whence  the  next  meal  is  to  come.  Al- 
most in  desperation,  the  distinction 
between  mine  and  thine  is  effaced,  and 
the  people  who  are  in  possession  are 
obliged  to  watch  their  crops,  their 
fruit,  their  food  in  their  larders,  all 
that  they  have  with  constant  care. 

With  monotony  and  poverty  com- 
bined, human  life  has  little  value  even 
for  its  owner.  One  is  tempted  to  think 
the  Chinese  made  of  a  special  nervous, 
or  nerveless,  tissue.  Certain  it  is  that 
all  the  discomfort  of  their  villages  and 
homes  does  not  annoy  them,  nor  are 
198 


China,  its  Spirit  anD  Problems 

they  ambitious  of  anything  better. 
Foreign  surgeons  perform  operations 
upon  them  without  anaesthetics  which 
no  Occidental  could  so  endure.  A  mis- 
sionary friend  illustrated  from  his  ex- 
perience the  curious  insensibility  to 
discomfort.  Returning  half  sick  from  a 
trip  in  the  interior  he  put  up  in  the 
village  inn,  a  series  of  cells  surround- 
ing a  courtyard.  No  sooner  was  he 
settled  in  his  place  than  in  came  a 
man  with  a  donkey  and  stopped  just 
outside  his  room;  and  soon  a  second 
and  a  third  and  a  fourth,  then  men  with 
other  beasts,  all  tired  and  excited  and 
noisy,  but  not  a  Chinaman  protested 
or  indeed  cared.  Not  until  after  mid- 
night did  the  hubbub  subside,  and  then 
shortly,  long  before  dawn,  a  man  came 
with  a  number  of  hogs  and  proceeded 
to  brand  them  one  by  one!  Only  a  for- 
eigner with  high-strung  nerves  would 
object  to  such  a  resting-place. 

Even  the  Japanese  are  astonished  at 
the  Chinese  lack  of  nerves.  A  spy  was 

199 


Cbe  Spirit  of  tfje  SDrient 


taken  early  in  the  war,  a  Chinaman, 
and  was  condemned  to  be  beheaded. 
He  listened  to  the  sentence  with  stolid 
composure,  and  asked  for  something 
to  eat  on  his  way  to  the  execution 
ground.  He  was  given  a  rice-ball 
wrapped  in  a  leaf,  and  he  ate  the  food 
with  keen  relish,  taking  the  pains  at 
last  to  pick  off  the  kernels  which  ad- 
hered to  the  leaf.  Then  he  threw  away 
the  leaf  and  bowed  his  head  to  the  exe- 
cutioner's sword. 

Or  take  another  instance.  In  a  ty- 
phoon the  Chinese  stokers  on  a 
steamer  quit  work  and  threw  them- 
selves on  the  floor.  Neither  curses, 
kicks  nor  blows  could  induce  them  to 
stir  from  their  places.  Finally  the  chief 
officer  drew  his  revolver  and  threat- 
ened to  shoot  if  they  did  not  return  to 
work.  They  still  refused,  and  he  shot 
one  of  them,  and  threatened  to  shoot 
again.  They  still  refused  to  work  and 
he  shot  again.  But  still  they  refused 
to  work,  and  he  put  up  his  pistol,  re- 
200 


Cfcina,  itg  Spirit  ana  Proftlemg 

cognizing  the  impossibility  of  arous- 
ing them.  They  fully  expected  the  loss 
of  the  ship,  and  why  should  they  spend 
the  last  hour  of  life  at  work,  or  what 
did  it  matter  whether  they  went  down 
with  the  boat  or  were  killed  by  the 
chief  officer?  The  cabin  passengers 
stoked  the  furnaces  and  saved  the 
ship. 

But  though  the  Chinaman  is  thus  dis- 
regardful  of  life,  though  many  can  be 
found  who  will  give  their  lives  for  a  few 
dollars  or  out  of  revenge,  yet  no  peo- 
ple are  so  mindful  of  the  body  after 
death  or  so  clear  in  mind  as  to  the  fu- 
ture state.  They  provide  the  departed 
spirit  with  an  elaborate  outfit,  furni- 
ture and  clothes,  and  even  deeds  of 
property,  all  of  paper,  all  to  be  burned, 
and  all  of  value  in  the  spirit  world.  The 
body  is  prepared  with  elaborate  care, 
and  buried  in  ground  which  is  hence- 
forth sacred. 

With  all  his  practicality,  the  China- 
man is  intensely  religious,  or  perhaps 

201 


C&e  Spirit  of  tbe  Orient 

as  the  King  James  version  mistrans- 
lates St.  Paul's  word,  "superstitious." 
There  are  three  great  religions,  and 
a  Chinaman  may  believe  any  or  all 
or,  most  likely,  some  composite  of  the 
three.  Two  are  native  and  one  im- 
ported. The  last  is  Buddhism.  It  was 
made  the  state  religion  in  the  first  cen- 
tury of  the  Christian  era,  and  for  a 
thousand  years  influenced  profoundly 
the  empire.  Emperors  abdicated  and 
became  monks;  great  nobles  founded 
monasteries,  becoming  abbots;  great 
ladies  entered  convents ;  literature  and 
philosophy  were  shaped  by  the  Indian 
teaching.  But  after  the  thousand  years 
had  passed  educated  men  rejected  the 
religion  and  returned  to  the  teaching 
of  Confucius,  leaving  Buddhism  for  the 
ignorant  and  the  lowly.  Nowadays  it  is 
still  in  this  evil  fortune,  compounded 
with  a  variety  of  native  superstitions 
and  incapable  of  high  influence.  Its 
priests  are  ignorant  and  degraded, 
and  its  true  followers  few.  The  attitude 
202 


Ctrina,  its  Spirit  anD  Iptotilcms 

of  the  gentry  towards  it  is  well  illus- 
trated by  an  address  given  by  a  high 
official  some  years  ago  at  the  dedica- 
tion of  a  Buddhist  temple.  He  told  the 
people  that  he  came  because  he  had 
been  earnestly  invited  to  make  the 
chief  address ;  that  of  course  he  did  not 
believe  in  any  of  these  things;  that  he 
had  no  doubt  Buddhism  was  of  some 
interest  and  value  for  the  lower  classes; 
and,  finally,  that  possibly  there  might 
be  some  truth  in  some  of  its  teach- 
ings! No  one  seemed  shocked  or  even 
surprised  at  so  strange  an  address  of 
dedication,  for  it  expressed  what  ev- 
ery one  knew  to  be  the  facts. 

Besides  Buddhism  is  Taoism.  It  was 
originally  a  mysticism,  but  is  now  sim- 
ply a  mass  of  miscellaneous  supersti- 
tions, with  priests  who  act  as  necro- 
mancers and  quellers  of  evil  spirits. 
They  cast  the  horologue  for  infants, 
choose  lucky  days  for  enterprises,  and 
determine  what  is  the  relationship  of 
the  position  of  houses  to  good  and  bad 

203 


C6e  Spirit 


luck.  Most  potent  of  all  the  influences 
which  determine  man's  destiny  are 
those  of  air  and  earth  (Feng-Shui  the 
Chinese  call  them),  and  the  necroman- 
cer must  always  be  consulted  in  order 
that  evil  maybe  ordered  oravoided  and 
good  invited.  The  topic  would  take  a 
volume  by  itself. 

The  ordinary  citizen  cares  little  for 
distinctions  between  these  systems, 
and  knows  little  of  their  teachings.  He 
follows  custom  and  tradition,  and  fre- 
quents the  village  temple,  and  employs 
the  priest  as  he  binds  his  daughter's 
feet,  and  conforms  to  the  fashions  in 
his  dress.  The  government  has  no  state 
church,  but  it  governs  religion  as  it 
governs  all  else.  The  officials  are  su- 
perior not  only  to  the  priests  but  to 
the  gods,  so  that  one  may  read  in  the 
Peking  "Gazette,"  the  official  publica- 
tion of  the  government,  of  the  exalta- 
tion or  the  degradation  of  some  local 
deity  precisely  as  of  the  promotion  or 
punishment  of  a  human  official. 
204 


Ctmnyts  Spirit  ano 


The  religion  of  the  official  is  Confu- 
cianism, and  this  is  the  true  religion 
of  China.  As  in  India  so  in  China,  re- 
ligion is  like  a  transcript  of  the  peo- 
ple, it  reveals  in  clearest  light  the 
spirit  of  the  empire.  Confucianism  has 
been  described  as  chiefly  polity,  that 
is,  for  the  government  of  the  states- 
man. In  fact  it  is  intended  first  of  all 
for  him,  and  sets  forth  the  ideal  which 
is  to  be  his  guide.  It  is  lofty,  rational, 
attainable,  and,  as  things  go,  effec- 
tive. It  makes  righteousness  the  very 
essence  of  the  ruler.  If  a  man  be  not 
righteous  he  is  no  ruler,  and  a  king  is 
rightfully  dethroned  if  he  transgress 
the  law.  As  with  the  ruler  so  with  all 
men,  righteousness  is  first,  indeed  it 
forms  man's  true  nature.  Elsewhere 
only  by  the  Jewish  prophets  has  the 
rule  of  right  conduct  been  so  exalted 
and  righteousness  made  so  supreme. 
In  empire,  in  community,  in  family,  in 
one's  own  soul,  righteousness  is  to 
reign.  Or  we  may  reverse  the  order. 

205 


Cbe  Spirit  of  tjje  flDrtent 


One  is  first  of  all  to  govern  himself  ac- 
cording to  righteousness,  then  his  fa- 
mily, then  the  community,  and  then  the 
empire.  Righteousness  is  the  law  not 
only  of  mankind  but  of  the  material 
universe  as  well.  All  is  law,  and  all  is 
according  to  one  great  system.  In  it 
everything  has  its  place,  and  in  its 
place  finds  its  reason  for  its  being.  That 
is,  the  Emperor  is  not  Emperor  in  or- 
der that  he  may  enjoy  wealth  and  plea- 
sure and  power.  He  is  Emperor  for  the 
sake  of  the  people.  As  it  is  written, 
"The  Empire  is  the  Empire  of  the 
Empire.  It  is  not  the  Empire  of  one 
man. "  So  with  the  father,  he  is  father 
not  for  his  pleasure  but  for  the  sake  of 
his  family;  and  so  with  the  son,  his 
existence  is  not  for  himself  but  for  his 
parents'  sake.  Nor  are  these  relation- 
ships merely  of  human  contrivance, 
they  are  natural,  the  expression  of 
heaven's  eternal  law.  Heaven  is  ex- 
pressed in  righteousness  and  truth, 
for  it  is  not  the  blue  vault  above  us, 
206 


Cirina,  its  Spirit  ana 


but  is  the  eternal  and  unchanging 
power  which  watches  over  us  and 
makes  for  righteousness.  Thus  Con- 
fucianism begins  with  the  concrete 
relationships  of  our  lives,  and  it  ends 
with  a  religious  acknowledgment  of 
an  invisible  Power  which  is  from 
everlasting  to  everlasting.  But  such 
a  system  is  too  refined  for  the  ordi- 
nary man.  Confucius  himself  said, 
"Heaven  is  too  cold  and  heartless, 
therefore  the  common  people  turn  to 
gods  and  spirits." 

The  contrast  between  India  and 
China  comes  out  most  clearly  in  their 
religions.  In  India  the  highest  holiness 
is  expressed  by  flight  from  the  world 
and  is  found  in  the  ascetic  and  the 
recluse.  In  China  such  a  retreat  from 
the  responsibilities  of  life  is  the  act 
of  a  madman,  for  man's  true  place  is 
found  precisely  in  the  activities  of  life 
and  in  being  true  to  one's  family, 
friends  and  government.  Hence  Bud- 
dhism is  repudiated  in  the  name  of  a 

207 


Cbe  %ptrtt  of  tbe  flDriem 


higher  morality,  or  it  is  accepted  as  a 
system  of  rites  and  ceremonies,  while 
Confucianism  is  maintained  as  the 
social  and  ethical  code  for  conduct. 
As  one  thinks  of  Confucianism,  its 
vast  antiquity,  its  immense  influence 
over  such  multitudes,  its  practical 
common  sense,  its  freedom  from  all 
that  is  superstitious  or  licentious  or 
cruel  or  priestly,  of  the  intelligent 
men  it  has  led  to  high  views  of  right- 
eousness, one  cannot  but  regard  it  as 
a  revelation  from  the  God  of  truth  and 
righteousness,  and  as  one  of  the  main 
reasons  which  account  for  the  long 
continued  peace,  prosperity  and  mo- 
rality of  the  remarkable  people  who 
produced  it. 

If  now  after  this  hasty  and  inade- 
quate review  we  ask  ourselves  what 
are  the  great  problems  which  face 
China,  we  find  ourselves  confronted 
by  difficulties  nowhere  surpassed. 
First  of  all  is  the  physical  situation. 
What  shall  be  done  with  a  country 
208 


Cfcma,  its  Spirit  anD 


where  poverty  is  so  prevalent?  Shall 
we  develop  the  resources  of  the  coun- 
try, introduce  scientific  methods  of 
agriculture,  build  factories  and  rail- 
ways, and  in  general  transform  indus- 
try? But  meanwhile  what  of  the  myri- 
ads who  shall  find  themselves  without 
employment,  displaced  by  railway  and 
factory  and  machinery?  Our  political 
economy  teaches  that  progress  is  al- 
ways at  the  expense  of  many,  and  the 
gain  is  worth  the  inevitable  cost.  But 
in  China  the  cost  would  be  so  inevitable 
and  so  tremendous  that  one  would  hesi- 
tate to  give  the  order  were  he  possessed 
of  omnipotent  command.  Will  future 
gain  balance  present  misery,  or  has  one 
the  right  to  doom  the  present  genera- 
tion to  suffering  for  the  sake  of  those 
that  shall  come  hereafter?  However, 
thequestionisnotaltogetherone-sided 
nor  theoretical.  The  people  now  suf- 
fer, as  we  have  seen.  The  population 
presses  upon  the  resources,  and  mil- 
lions are  in  dire  poverty,  with  famine 

209 


Cte  Spirit  of  tbe£)rient 


and  pestilence  always  present  possi- 
bilities. Only  if  we  are  to  sit  down 
helpless  before  fate  can  we  take  the 
view  that  nothing  must  be  done  be- 
cause of  the  displacement  of  labor.  It 
would  seem  as  if  the  new  era  had 
come  to  China  almost  too  late,  but 
none  the  less  we  are  convinced  that 
only  as  man  utilizes  the  forces  of  na- 
ture, only  as  he  learns  its  laws  and 
applies  them,  can  there  be  escape  from 
misery,  and  this  is  as  true  in  China  as 
in  America. 

The  same  holds  in  all  departments 
of  life.  China  has  a  splendid  belief  in 
nature  and  in  obedience  to  its  laws. 
But  it  confounds  nature's  laws  with 
the  contents  of  the  sacred  books. 
One  would  not  disturb  the  confidence 
in  nature,  but  China  must  replace  its 
useless  learning,  its  poetical  and  lit- 
erary accomplishments,  by  the  know- 
ledge of  facts.  The  empire  has  the  de- 
fects of  its  qualities.  Its  veneration,  its 
propriety,  its  sobriety,  all  bind  and  fet- 
210 


Cbma,  it0  Spirit  ana 


ter  it  because  it  lacks  the  freedom  of 
the  spirit  and  is  bound  fast  by  the  let- 
ter. None  gives  higher  respect  to  Con- 
fucius than  do  I.  But  how  shall  any  code 
framed  in  the  remote  past  meet  the 
changing  conditions  of  human  devel- 
opment, or  fail  to  fetter  man  when  it 
is  taken  as  unchanging  law?  With 
little  that  needs  to  be  repudiated  or 
cast  aside,  China  should  add  to  its 
stores  of  learning  the  new  science  in 
all  its  branches,  and  be  prepared  to 
live  not  in  the  twelfth  century  B.C. 
but  in  the  twentieth  century  A.D. 
With  these  changes  should  come  the 
reformation  of  its  government.  It  does 
not  need  a  revolution  or  the  overthrow 
of  existing  institutions.  The  present 
ones  will  suffice  if  efficiently  adminis- 
tered. And  how  shall  this  be  accom- 
plished? How  shall  knowledge  be  sub- 
stituted for  pedantry,  honesty  for  cor- 
ruption, clear-sighted  intelligence  for 
obstructive  conservatism?  How,  in 
short,  shall  China  be  led  forth  into  the 

211 


C6e  Spirit  of  tfce  Orient 


currents  of  the  twentieth  century  and 
be  made  participant  in  the  progress 
of  the  world? 

Let  us  repeat,  "the  good  is  ever  the 
enemy  of  the  best."  And  it  is  because 
China  has  so  long  possessed  the 
"good"  that  it  is  the  inveterate  enemy 
of  the  "best."  Nowhere  else  is  preju- 
dice stronger,  nowhere  else  are  ancient 
customs  which  are  unfortunate  and 
evil  more  firmly  established.  Contact 
with  foreign  nations  has  not  broken 
down  the  Chinese  wall  of  misunder- 
standings and  antipathy.  Neither  the 
friendly  meetings  of  commerce  nor  the 
hostile  meetings  of  war,  neither  the 
knowledge  of  the  greater  wealth  and 
prosperity  of  the  Occident  nor  the  ap- 
parition of  European  armies  in  Peking 
itself,  has  sufficed  for  China's  awaken- 
ing. But  now  at  last  Boxer  troubles, 
Russian  aggression,  and  the  startling 
success  of  Japan  appear  to  be  arous- 
ing the  giant.  What  shall  be  the  out- 
come none  can  know.  It  will  not  be 

212 


China,  it0  Spirit  ana  Problems 

shown  completely  in  our  generation, 
for  he  is  a  fool  who  attempts  to  "hustle" 
China.  It  can  be  transformed  neither  in 
haste  nor  by  arms.  Its  development 
has  been  too  ancient  and  too  slow,  its 
people  are  too  content  and  too  numer- 
ous, its  institutions  are  too  perfectly 
fitted  to  the  needs  of  the  people  and 
its  classic  teachings  too  completely 
expressive  of  their  mind,  for  any  at- 
tempt at  sudden  reformation  or  revo- 
lution to  succeed.  The  highest  wish 
one  may  form  is,  that  slowly,  without 
revolution  or  haste  or  cessation,  the 
people  be  educated  to  new  ideals  and 
to  new  views  of  nature  and  of  God,  and 
that  thus  still  on  the  basis  of  the  old  a 
new  may  be  reared  which  shall  be  bet- 
ter than  the  old  and  yet  possess  its 
splendid  virtues. 

China's  peculiar  characteristics  are 
the  result  of  her  immemorial  seclusion. 
Her  great  wall  is  typical  of  her  intel- 
lectual, economic  and  social  barriers. 
Henceforth  isolation  is  impossible  and 

213 


Cbe  Spirit  of  tfie  Orient 


undesirable.  Not  through  any  sudden 
irruption  of  " barbarians"  can  the  tra- 
ditions of  millenniums  be  overturned, 
but  only  by  the  slow  process  of  peace- 
ful contact.  We  may  hope  that  electri- 
city and  steam  and  the  countless  forces 
of  our  era  which  make  for  international 
intercourse  will  affect  China  at  last  and 
bring  her  into  the  comity  of  nations  and 
give  to  her  the  best  which  the  West 
has  learned. 


VII 

3[apan,  its  People  anD  Customs 


VII 

91apan,  ttg  people  anD  Customs 

HE  continent  of  Asia  is 
fringed  upon  its  east  by  a 
long  line  of  islands  which 
stretch  from  Kamchatka  on 
the  north  to  the  equator.  More  than 
two  thousand  miles  of  this  line  ac- 
knowledge the  sovereignty  of  Japan, 
the  northern  limit  being  farther  north 
than  the  northern  boundary  of  Maine, 
and  its  southern  south  of  the  Tropic  of 
Cancer.  By  the  cession  of  the  southern 
half  of  Sakhalin  to  Japan  under  the 
terms  of  the  new  Russo-Japanese 
treaty,  the  northern  boundary  of  the 
"island  empire"  will  touch  a  parallel 
which  crosses  Labrador.  But  without 
this  addition  the  empire  now  extends 
through  thirty  degrees  of  latitude  and 
thirty-five  of  longitude.  Yet  we  con- 
stantly think  of  it  as  a  little  kingdom, 
and  doubtless  Russian  statesmen  un- 
derestimated its  size  by  the  habitual 

217 


Cbe  Spirit  of  t&eDrient 


use  of  maps  drawn  to  different  scales, 
big  for  the  home  lands  and  small  for 
the  rest  of  the  world. 

Excluding  the  colonial  possessions, 
the  empire  itself  may  be  thought  of 
as  corresponding  to  our  own  Atlantic 
seaboard,  from  the  northern  boundary 
of  Maine  to  Florida,  with  an  area 
somewhat  more,  perhaps  a  quarter 
more,  than  that  of  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland,  and  a  population  of  about 
forty-five  millions.  Hence  it  is  not  one 
of  the  minor  nations,  but  in  size  is  com- 
parable to  France. 

Its  population  is  very  dense  in  spots. 
The  land  is  a  great  mountain  chain 
rising  out  of  the  sea  and  full  of  volca- 
noes. From  the  central  mountainous 
mass  branches  run  out  in  various  direc- 
tions to  the  sea,  so  that  one  is  almost 
never  out  of  sight  of  hills,  nor  are  there 
any  really  extensive  plains.  The  moun- 
tains are  sparsely  inhabited  and  are 
not  inviting  for  agriculture.  Indeed  only 
one  tenth  of  the  whole  surface  is  un- 
218 


3[apan,  its  People  ana  Customs 

der  cultivation,  so  that  a  small  fraction 
of  the  area  supports  the  population, 
aided,  it  is  true,  by  the  plentiful  harvest 
of  the  sea. 

The  mountains  came  out  of  the  sea, 
but  whence  the  people  came  we  do  not 
know.  Some  time  in  the  dim  past  they 
came  across  the  narrow  straits  from 
Korea,  and  in  various  waves  of  immi- 
gration occupied  the  land.  That  was 
before  they  had  either  written  history 
or  oral  tradition,  and  the  memory  of 
their  journeys  on  the  continent  has 
long  since  faded  without  leaving  more 
than  a  doubtful  trace  or  two.  What  we 
know  is  chiefly  negative.  They  are  not 
akin  to  the  Chinese  nor  to  any  other 
people  on  the  mainland,  except  in  a  re- 
mote cousinly  fashion  to  the  Koreans. 
If  we  may  judge  from  their  language, 
these  are  their  only  kin,  besides  the 
tribes  who  live  in  Loo  Choo,  now  also 
under  Japanese  rule. 

As  we  do  not  know  whence  the  race 
came,  so  also  we  do  not  know  when 

219 


C6e  Spirit  of  t&e  Orient 


they  came  into  their  land.  Already  it 
was  occupied,  and  for  ages  the  new- 
comers fought  the  aborigines  (if  indeed 
these  were  not  immigrants  themselves 
and  conquerors  like  the  Japanese),  un- 
til at  last  the  latest  comers  were  in  se- 
cure possession  and  at  peace.  During 
this  same  period,  however,  the  Japa- 
nese fought  among  themselves,  being 
divided  into  clans  or  tribes  or  fami- 
lies without  any  strong  central  govern- 
ment. Japan  is  unlike  India  and  China 
in  this :  it  has  not  a  history  of  imme- 
morial antiquity,  but  is  a  new  nation, 
in  age  comparable  to  the  nations  of 
Europe.  When  the  Germanic  tribes 
were  still  semi-barbarous  so  were  the 
Japanese,  for  the  latter  came  under  the 
influence  of  enlightenment  only  a  little 
before  the  time  of  Charlemagne. 

Long,  then,  after  the  Christian  era  ci- 
vilization came  to  Japan  from  China, 
brought  by  Buddhist  priests  who  came 
as  missionaries  not  only  of  civilization 
but  of  religion.  The  earliest  trust- 
220 


3|apan,  its  people  ano  Cugtomg 

worthy  date  is  552,  and  the  first  book 
written  in  Japan,  which  still  remains, 
was  composed  in  the  year  7 12.  Thence- 
forward the  history  of  the  people  is 
clear  and  carefully  written. 
Buddhism  won  its  first  converts  a- 
mong  the  highest  of  the  people,  em- 
perors and  queens  and  great  nobles. 
There  was  something  of  opposition,  in 
part  religious  on  the  part  of  the  old 
native  faith,  in  part  political  by  men 
who  did  not  fancy  the  new  system  of 
government  now  introduced.  For  with 
Buddhism  came  all  Chinese  civiliza- 
tion, the  very  name  by  which  Japan  is 
called,  Nippon;  the  centralized  form 
of  government,  with  emperor,  who  in 
imitation  of  Chinese  usage  was  called 
Son  of  Heaven,  and  twelve  ministries, 
and  an  organization  of  the  country  in- 
to provinces;  a  new  code  of  laws;  let- 
ters and  literature,  mechanics,  agri- 
culture, commerce,  architecture,  art, — 
all  continental  and  all  adopted  with 
fervor.  The  process  was  long,  from  the 

221 


Cfce  Spirit  of  tbe  SDtient 


middle  of  the  sixth  century  to  the  mid- 
dle of  the  eighth,  but  it  was  accom- 
plished at  last,  and  Japan  took  on  the 
appearance  which  it  still  retains. 

Fortunately,  the  process  was  per- 
mitted to  go  on  to  its  end  without  inter- 
ference. After  a  few  ineffectual  upris- 
ings there  were  no  rebellions  within, 
and  no  foreign  foe  appeared  without. 
Foreigners  indeed  were  interested  in 
the  process,  but  as  friends  and  advis- 
ers and  teachers  only.  They  did  not 
plot  for  supremacy,  nor  use  their  posi- 
tion to  further  political  ends,  so  that 
they  were  trusted  and  given  positions 
of  honor.  After  a  time  the  Japanese 
visited  China  and  Korea,  seeking 
knowledge  at  the  fountainhead,  and 
came  back  laden  with  treasures  of  in- 
formation. 

The  civilization  thus  introduced  was 
of  course  Asiatic  in  all  its  characteris- 
tics, but  it  was  Asiatic  civilization  at 
its  best.  Buddhism  as  it  came  to  Japan 
was  an  organized  religion,  with  tem- 

222 


3lapan,  ftg  People  anti  Customs 

pies  and  monasteries  and  a  hierarchy. 
It  had  a  developed  theology,  a  meta- 
physical philosophy  and  many  sects. 
Its  influence  was  great,  for  Japanese 
religion  was  completely  unformed  and 
undogmatic.  In  place  of  its  simple  na- 
ture-worship with  its  confused  mass 
of  superstitions  Buddhism  brought 
definite  ideas,  elaborate  rites  and  a 
profound  belief  in  education.  Schools 
were  started  in  connection  with  the 
temples,  and  the  people  were  taught 
the  wonders  of  Asiatic  learning. 

But  with  all  its  excellences  Bud- 
dhism was  thoroughly  Asiatic.  Its 
idea  of  God  was  profoundly  philosophi- 
cal, so  that  only  the  few  could  under- 
stand it,  and,  therefore,  precisely  as  in 
India,  for  the  masses  there  were  pious 
fictions  which  were  "good  enough" 
for  them.  Then,  still  more  to  the  detri- 
ment of  sound  ideals,  the  conception 
of  the  religious  life  was  ascetic,  or  at 
least  religion  was  synonymous  with 
"flight  from  the  world."  Hence  the 

223 


C6e  Spirit  of  t&e  HDrtent 


holy  man  is  not  in  the  world,  but  has- 
tens out  of  it,  and  his  task  is  not  its  re- 
formation, but  the  contemplation  of 
the  "Ultimate  and  the  Absolute." 
With  such  teaching  there  is  always 
danger  that  the  best  of  the  nation  will 
shun  its  most  pressing  tasks,  and  that 
the  great  work  of  every  day  will  be  de- 
graded by  the  belief  that  it  is  not  tru- 
ly religious.  Buddhism  in  Japan  was 
saved  in  part  from  these  results  by  its 
union  with  Confucianism.  For  when 
Buddhism  came  to  Japan  it  was  still 
in  harmony  with  the  rival  system  in 
China,  the  former  furnishing  the  ma- 
terial for  the  religious  life,  and  the  lat- 
ter the  code  of  morals  for  the  work- 
aday world.  So  was  it  in  Japan,  and 
thus  the  full  effects  of  Buddhism  were 
not  felt.  Still,  as  in  China,  emperors 
abdicated  to  enter  monasteries,  and 
great  nobles  became  abbots.  There 
was  immense  activity  in  temple-build- 
ing and  in  religious  art  and  in  reli- 
gious ceremonies  andrites.The  nation 
224 


3lapan,  its  People  ana  Customs 

took  on  a  religious  aspect  which  still 
continues.  Notwithstanding  this  un- 
doubted service  in  bringing  civiliza- 
tion and  learning,  the  predominant 
characteristic  was  other-worldliness, 
for  the  typical  Buddhist  is  the  man 
who  is  so  impressed  with  the  transi- 
tory and  worthless  character  of  all 
things  that  he  conies  to  think  that 
nothing  is  of  real  consequence,  so  that 
happiness  is  not  to  be  sought  nor  sor- 
row avoided.  Hence  the  world  as- 
sumes an  unreal  aspect  and  is  sorrow- 
ful in  its  best  estate.  "As  sad  as  a 
temple  bell"  is  a  Japanese  proverb, 
and  the  impression  made  by  religion 
is  that  all  strenuous  effort  is  an  error, 
quietness,  repose  and  a  placid  con- 
tent being  the  chief  ends  of  life.  In  all 
this  Japan  belongs  to  the  continent  up- 
on whose  border  it  lies. 
The  civilization  which  resulted  from 
this  contact  with  China  was  truly  of 
the  Asiatic  type.  How  indeed  could  it 
have  been  otherwise?  In  the  first  chap- 

225 


C6e  Spirit  of  the  SDtient 


ter  reference  was  made  to  a  Turk 
who  objected  to  life  in  Paris,  his  ideal 
being  a  mansion  and  a  garden  arid  a 
group  of  friends,  removed  from  social 
functions  and  great  dinners  and  en- 
gagements and  note-writing;  a  place 
where  one  could  be  in  luxurious  ease 
and  do  as  he  pleased.  Such  was  this 
early  civilization  in  Japan,  refined,  aes- 
thetic, luxurious,  in  retreat  from  the 
responsibilities  and  cares  of  life,  and 
withal  immoral.  The  emperors  were 
the  source  of  power,  but  they  ceased 
to  rule.  The  great  nobles  monopolized 
the  offices  of  state,  but  they  were  too 
effeminate  to  attend  to  their  duties. 
The  lesser  nobles  sent  their  subordi- 
nates to  govern  the  provinces  in  their 
name,  and  gave  themselves  to  plea- 
sure, while  over  the  whole  scene  reli- 
gion threw  its  half-light,  the  great  Bud- 
dhistic establishments  being  under 
the  patronage  of  the  emperor  and  his 
princes  and  as  luxurious  as  palaces. 
Thither  the  rulers  retired  for  repose 
226 


3[apan,  its  People  ana  Cugtomg    , 

when  the  ceremonious  life  at  court  be- 
came too  burdensome.  Had  all  this 
continued  Japan  would  have  become 
decrepit  before  reaching  maturity. 

But  this  spirit  of  Oriental  luxury  is 
not  the  spirit  of  Japan.  After  a  time 
luxurious  peace  came  to  an  end.  Be- 
cause of  the  misrule  of  the  central 
government  rebellion  broke  out  and 
endless  feuds  ensued.  A  feudal  system 
was  formed  gradually  with  its  barons 
from  the  ranks  of  the  soldiery,  while 
the  old  nobility  looked  on  helplessly, 
and  the  emperor  lost  all  his  power,  be- 
coming a  prisoner  of  state,  none  the 
less  a  prisoner  because  invested  with  a 
quasi-divine  dignity.  For  five  hundred 
years  war  was  the  burden  of  the  story. 
It  is  a  tiresome  tale,  Asiatic  in  this, 
that  it  involved  no  great  principle,  but 
was  merely  tribal,  individual  and  lo- 
cal strife.  No  great  constitutional 
movement  came  out  of  it  and  no  high 
ideal  of  the  worth  of  man;  hence  it  is 
not  history  in  the  highest  sense,  for 

227 


Cbe  Spirit  of  tfteSDrient 


that  is  a  record  not  of  the  doings  of 
man  but  of  his  progress. 

However,  something  was  accom- 
plished during  these  centuries.  In  the 
earliest  times  there  was  no  army,  but 
so  far  as  we  can  judge  from  our  imper- 
fect evidence,  the  strongest  men  served 
as  soldiers  in  the  time  of  need,  and  if 
there  were  troops  with  local  chieftains, 
they  were  not  distinguished  perma- 
nently from  the  masses  of  the  people. 
But  in  the  feudal  wars  gradually  a 
military  class  was  formed,  the  famous 
samurai.  They  were  the  military  re- 
tainers of  the  barons,  and  corresponded 
roughly  to  the  knights  of  feudal  Eu- 
rope. Each  baron  had  his  castle  with 
its  moats  and  walls.  Within  the  outer 
walls  dwelt  the  samurai,  or  sometimes 
in  choice  situations  in  the  near  vicin- 
ity. They  constituted  the  power  on 
which  the  baron  depended,  and  in  them, 
subject  to  him,  were  vested  all  the 
state  functions.  They  were  the  judges 
and  the  civil  officials  as  well  as  the 
228 


3lapan,  it0  People  and  Customs 

military  force.  The  baron  only  was 
above  them,  and  he  was  often  so  effem- 
inate that  the  knights  had  all  things 
in  their  control,  so  that  their  interests 
were  varied,  and  they  learned  to  iden- 
tify themselves  with  the  state.  They 
in  time  constituted  a  caste,  and  though 
some  of  the  greatest  soldiers  Japan 
has  produced  came  from  the  common 
people,  and  though  there  is  no  differ- 
ence in  blood  or  in  fundamental  char- 
acteristics between  the  samurai  and 
the  rest,  yet  so  strong  was  the  feeling 
of  superiority  that  a  man  from  the 
people  who  by  extraordinary  means 
entered  this  higher  class  was  ostra- 
cized, nor  could  his  descendants  re- 
gard themselves  as  on  an  equality  un- 
til the  fourth  or  fifth  generation. 
We  find,  then,  in  Japan  a  social  organ- 
ization which  was  not  essentially  Asi- 
atic but  approximated  the  scheme  of 
Europe  in  the  feudal  ages.  First  of  all 
were  the  emperor  and  the  court  no- 
bles, with  a  religious  atmosphere  about 

229 


Cbe  Spirit  of  tbe  £Drient 


them,  living  in  retirement  without  con- 
tact with  the  actual  affairs  of  the 
empire.  Similar  instances  have  been 
known  in  Europe;  for  example,  the 
sluggard  kings  of  France  in  the  sev- 
enth and  eighth  centuries.  Then  came 
the  feudal  barons,  in  number  varying 
at  different  times,  but  say  two  hundred 
and  fifty  in  all,  men  who  had  seized  po- 
sitions of  advantage  and  had  won  the 
power  which  they  handed  to  their  de- 
scendants, provided  the  sword  which 
had  won  it  could  preserve  it;  next 
were  the  samurai,  the  knights,  the 
gentlemen,  some  four  hundred  thou- 
sand of  them,  making  with  their  wives 
and  children  a  total  of  eighteen  hun- 
dred thousand ;  and  below  these  were 
the  common  people, — farmers,  arti- 
sans, merchants  and  laborers,— with 
a  horde  still  below  the  last,  beggars  and 
thieves  and  outcastes.  This  organiza- 
tion lasted  until  1867-9,  when  the  feudal 
system  was  overthrown  and  modern 
reforms  were  introduced. 
230 


3lapan,  its  People  ano  Customs 

If  now  we  attempt  to  enter  the  life  of 
the  people  we  shall  find  resemblances 
to  and  differences  from  other  Asiatic 
kingdoms.  Here  was  not  a  peace-lov- 
ing democracy  as  in  China,  nor  a  caste 
system  based  on  differences  in  nation- 
ality as  in  India,  but  a  feudal  aristo- 
cracy as  in  Europe.  Nor,  again,  was 
there,  as  in  China,  a  notion  of  self-suf- 
ficiency, of  being  the  only  civilized  na- 
tion under  heaven,  for  the  people  were 
well  aware  that  their  civilization  was 
not  indigenous  but  imported.  Nor  was 
there  the  sense  of  subjugation  which  is 
characteristic  of  India  where  wave  af- 
ter wave  of  foreign  conquest  has  rolled 
over  the  land,  for  Japan  has  never  been 
conquered  by  a  foreign  foe.  Thus  again 
we  have  a  consciousness  approaching 
the  European  type,  with  its  recogni- 
tion of  indebtedness  to  the  ancient  ci- 
vilizations and  its  proud  self-reliance 
and  confidence  in  its  power  to  work 
out  its  own  destiny.  From  such  com- 
binations we  may  look  for  the  greatest 

231 


Cbe  Spirit  of  the  Drient 


results,  not  from  peoples  who  have 
been  so  isolated  that  they  have  ac- 
quired an  altogether  false  conception 
of  their  own  position,  nor  from  peo- 
ples who  have  been  so  conquered  that 
they  have  lost  self-confidence,  but  pre- 
cisely from  peoples  who,  knowing  their 
debt  to  others,  are  still  confident  in 
their  own  ability  to  maintain  their  in- 
dependence and  to  add  to  the  progress 
of  the  race. 

This  consciousness  in  Japan  was  dif- 
ferently developed  in  the  differing 
classes,  and  yet  it  was  not  wholly 
wanting  in  any.  With  all  his  ceremo- 
nial readiness  to  acknowledge  his  su- 
periors there  was  in  the  common  man 
a  certain  sturdy  self-assertion  which 
commanded  respect,  for  he  was  by  no 
means  ready  to  submit  beyond  definite 
limits,  and  at  times  forced  the  hand 
of  his  masters  by  acts  of  heroic  self- 
devotion. 

The  farmers  ranked  next  to  the  gen- 
tlemen, and  some  of  them  were  men  of 
232 


3lapan,  its  people  ana  Customs 

importance.  The  homeofagreat  farmer 
had  the  characteristics  we  found  want- 
ing in  China,— elegance,  neatness, 
comfort,  order,  attractiveness.  A  friend 
of  mine  was  the  son  of  a  farmer  who 
had  hundreds  of  peasants.  They  were 
his  tenants,  paying  him  half  their  gross 
products  as  rent.  They  were  at  his 
mercy,  owning  nothing  but  their  little 
cabins  and  the  ground  on  which  they 
stood.  Were  he  to  refuse  one  of  them 
the  renewal  of  his  lease,  it  would  be 
ruin.  There  was  no  possibility  of  other 
employment  in  the  neighborhood,  and 
a  peasant  could  not  travel  to  any  other 
district  without  a  passport.  Yet  the 
relationship  was  not  without  its  alle- 
viations. In  hard  seasons  the  landlord 
reduced  the  rent  or  remitted  it  alto- 
gether, and  in  cases  of  misfortune  he 
was  expected  to  aid.  But  he  was  not 
free  himself.  The  government  exacted 
a  large  part  of  his  receipts  as  land  tax, 
and  as  he  looked  down  upon  his  ten- 
ants and  would  not  associate  with 

233 


Cbe  Spirit  of  tfte  SDrtent 


them,  so  did  the  gentlemen  look  down 
upon  him.  At  the  end  of  an  avenue  of 
fine  old  trees,  and  surrounded  by  a 
beautiful  garden,  stood  his  house,  large 
and  well  arranged,  with  articles  of  art 
and  every  indication  of  refinement.  Life 
had  run  on  in  peace  and  prosperity  for 
generations,  the  estate  being  entailed 
so  that  it  was  inherited  by  the  eldest 
son. 

In  some  of  the  provinces  the  tenants 
had  larger  rights.  In  Tosa,  for  exam- 
ple, the  tenant  could  not  be  evicted  if 
he  paid  his  rent,  nor  could  the  rent  be 
increased,  and  he  could  sell  his  rent- 
hold  at  his  will,  while  all  the  improve- 
ments he  had  made  were  his.  Thus 
he  was  independent.  Tosa  anticipated 
the  Ulster  custom  of  tenant  rights. 
In  this  province  there  were  no  great 
farmers,  none  with  a  place  compara- 
ble to  that  described  in  the  last  para- 
graph, but,  on  the  other  hand,  none 
was  very  poor.  They  were  an  inde- 
pendent folk,  unceremonious,  know- 
234 


3|apan,  ttg  people  ana  Cu0tomg 

ing  their  own  rights,  and  ready  to  de- 
fend them,  mindful  of  the  feudal  wars 
in  which  their  fathers  had  taken  part, 
fighting  for  this  baron  or  for  that,  and 
winning  the  respect  of  the  gentlemen 
by  their  bravery. 

In  the  regions  near  Yedo  (Tokyo) 
the  conditions  were  harder,  and  the 
farmers  sometimes  rose  in  rebellion, 
not  against  the  system  but  against 
its  administration.  A  story  is  told  of 
one  who  sacrificed  himself  for  his 
neighbors,  winning  immortal  fame. 
Conditions  were  unbearable,  and  the 
local  baron  was  deaf  to  all  entreaties. 
So  this  farmer  resolved  to  lose  his  life 
for  the  welfare  of  his  fellows.  He  wrote 
a  petition  setting  forth  the  wrongs  of 
the  farmers,  and  went  to  Yedo.  There 
he  waited  his  opportunity,  and  thrust 
his  petition  into  the  palanquin  of  the 
ruler  of  Japan,  the  Shogun.  This  act 
was  punishable  with  death,  for  none 
was  permitted  to  approach  the  sov- 
ereign in  such  irregular  fashion,  and 

235 


Cbe  Spirit  of  tfce  SDrient 


the  farmer  was  taken,  handed  over  to 
his  own  master  and  crucified.  But  his 
purpose  was  accomplished  and  the 
people  were  relieved. 
At  best  the  work  of  the  peasant 
farmer  is  insufficiently  rewarded.  He 
cannot  eat  the  rice  he  raises,  but  must 
sell  it  and  live  on  cheaper  food;  his 
house  is  small  and  devoid  of  furniture 
and  his  clothing  is  of  the  scantiest. 
A  peasant  in  Tosa  showed  me  his  ac- 
count for  a  year,  and  his  total  receipts 
from  twelve  months  of  hard  work  were 
less  than  twenty  dollars,  out  of  which 
he  had  to  clothe  and  feed  himself. 
And  the  peasant  is  well  off  who  earns 
sixty  dollars  in  the  year.  Hence  life 
is  of  the  simplest.  Yet  it  has  its  com- 
pensations: for  example,  once  in  a 
lifetime  a  religious  pilgrimage,  which 
is  a  prolonged  picnic,  to  some  famous 
shrine,  or  a  trip  to  Tokyo  and  to  its 
temples.  Besides  there  are  holidays 
and  rustic  festivals  and  pleasant  re- 
sorts within  easy  reach.  The  peasant 
236 


3[apan,  its  People  and  Customs 

also  loves  nature  and  has  his  tiny  gar- 
den, and  for  the  winter  time  a  box  of 
plants.  His  children  nowadays  go  to 
school,  and  begin  to  understand  some- 
thing of  the  events  of  the  day.  For 
Japan  has  a  well-established  system 
of  public  schools,  based  upon  our  own, 
and  tuition  is  free  to  all  who  apply  for 
it,  though  a  small  fee  is  charged  the 
well-to-do. 

From  the  ranks  of  the  farmers  comes 
a  large  part  of  the  class  foreigners 
call  "coolies."  The  young  men  dread 
the  hard  and  narrow  life  of  the  farm, 
and  go  to  the  cities,  where  they  can 
find  employment  in  pulling  the  little 
carriages  called  jinrikisha.  In  Tokyo 
alone  more  than  forty  thousand  men 
gain  their  livelihood  by  this  means.  A 
man  may  earn  a  dollar  on  some  days 
if  he  be  fortunate,  or,  in  private  em- 
ployment, as  much  as  eight  dollars 
a  month.  Then  he  has  the  excitement 
of  his  trips,  racing  with  his  fellows, 
and  taking  long  runs  as  a  great  pic- 

237 


Cbe  Spirit  of  thz  HDrtent 


nic.  The  work  is  not  continuous  as  on 
the  farm,  but  is  interspersed  with  rest 
and  amusement.  He  eats  better  food 
and  sees  more  of  the  world,  and  so, 
though  he  descends  a  step  in  the  so- 
cial world,  he  chooses  the  pleasanter 
life.  Often  it  is  the  more  immoral  life 
also,  and  as  he  does  not  take  good 
care  of  himself,  he  is  worn  out  before 
his  time.  From  these  men  and  their 
fellows,  the  hereditary  coolies,  the 
government  has  found  endless  num- 
bers of  recruits  for  its  service  in  Korea 
and  Manchuria,— an  unexcelled  force 
for  carrying  burdens  and  pulling  carts, 
cheaper  and  more  effective  than 
horses,  and  as  dependable  as  the  sol- 
diers themselves. 

The  artisans  rank  next  to  the  farm- 
ers. Their  work  is  like  that  of  arti- 
sans in  all  lands,  but  it  is  distinguished 
by  its  artistic  quality.  China  has  pro- 
duced great  artists,  and  India  has 
magnificent  structures  in  its  tombs 
and  palaces  and  temples ;  but  no  other 
238 


glapan,  itg  Ifteople  and  Cugtomg 


land  can  show  such  a  love  for  the 
beautiful  and  such  a  universal  power 
for  its  production  as  can  Japan.  Italy 
is  its  only  rival,  and  art  is  even  more 
common  in  Japan  than  in  Italy.  Art  is 
not  a  thing  apart,  though  there  are  fa- 
milies and  guilds  of  artists,  but  it  is  the 
application  of  beauty  to  common  arti- 
cles. So  that  one  finds  bits  of  fine  carv- 
ing in  remote  country  villages,  in  inns 
and  farm-houses,  and  forms  of  roofs 
and  gateways  and  verandas  which 
please  the  artistic  sense,  and  utensils 
of  the  kitchen  and  the  table  which  in 
shape  and  decoration  are  worthy  of  the 
collector's  attention.  Even  in  the  pri- 
sons are  men  and  women  who  produce 
embroidery  and  carvings  and  artistic 
articles  in  many  varieties.  Thus  art  is 
only  the  common  work  done  with  lov- 
ing care  and  with  a  feeling  for  the 
beautiful,  and  one  hesitates  to  draw 
the  line  between  artisan  and  artist. 
In  the  old  days  the  best  workers 
were  given  a  distinguished  place,  the 

239 


Cbe  Spirit  of  tfie  Drient 


product  of  their  labor  being  taken  by 
great  personages,  and  the  workers 
treated  like  the  retainers  of  the  no- 
bles— that  is,  given  allowances  for  a 
lifetime,  and  expected  to  produce  work 
not  by  the  piece  and  for  the  market 
but  in  perfection  and  with  the  con- 
noisseur in  view.  So  to-day  the  choi- 
cest work  is  not  done  in  factories  but 
in  tiny  shops,  the  artist  being  content 
with  his  work  and  seeking  only  a  mod- 
est livelihood.  The  coming  of  the  mod- 
ern commercial  spirit,  however,  threat- 
ens perfection,  for  it  seeks  pecuniary 
reward  and  as  a  consequence  meets  the 
popular  taste  and  produces  by  whole- 
sale. Like  the  farmer  and  the  coolie, 
the  artisan  and  the  artist  form  here- 
ditary castes,  in  which  the  blood  de- 
scent is  less  important  than  skill  in  the 
vocation,  for  often  the  headship  goes 
not  to  the  eldest  son  but  to  an  ap- 
prentice who  excels.  He  may  perhaps 
marry  his  master's  daughter  and  be- 
come the  head  of  the  family,  taking 
240 


3lapan,  its  people  and  Customs 

the  family  name  and  striving  to  main- 
tain its  reputation. 

In  such  a  society  trade  has  a  subor- 
dinate place,  for  the  ideal  is  virtue, 
that  is,  work  for  the  work's  sake  and 
not  for  gain.  Hence  mere  barter  is  held 
in  disrepute.  The  trader  is  looked  upon 
as  is  the  peddler  or  the  huckster  in  the 
West.  It  is  true  there  have  been  great 
families  of  merchants  and  houses  fa- 
mous from  generation  to  generation, 
but  generally  the  trade  was  on  a  small 
scale  and  dishonest,  the  very  notion 
of  gain  being  dishonorable.  Hence  in 
our  modern  world  the  Japanese  have 
acquired  an  evil  repute  among  mer- 
chants. It  is  not  easy  to  do  business 
with  men  to  whom  a  contract  is  not 
sacred,  by  whom  profit  is  sought 
through  overreaching  and  misrepre- 
sentation, and  with  whom  trade  is  a 
game.  A  wise  buyer  of  high-priced  ar- 
ticles told  me  that  on  entering  a  little 
shop  in  search  of  ivories  he  never  ex- 
pressed a  desire  to  see  them,  but  talked 

241 


Cbe  Spirit  of  tbe  flDriem 


of  other  articles,— bronze,  silk  or  lac- 
quer,—and  only  after  repeated  visits, 
when  the  shopkeeper  produced  the 
ivories  of  his  own  accord,  would  the 
purchaser  so  much  as  look  at  them,  and 
then  only  with  the  protestation  that  he 
cared  nothing  for  them,  but  was  ambi- 
tious only  of  other  things.  Or  again, 
sometimes  the  price  rises  as  the  buyer 
desires  many  of  a  kind,  a  dozen  coming 
to  more  than  twelve  times  the  price  of 
one,  because  thus  the  shop  is  emptied 
of  its  stock  and  the  seller  is  obliged 
to  take  the  trouble  to  replenish  it.  Or 
again,  it  takes  reiterated  demands  to 
get  the  article  one  desires  brought 
forth,  the  merchant  declaring  that  he 
does  not  have  it,  though  his  storehouse 
has  an  ample  supply.  For  even  the  mer- 
chant does  not  have  the  true  commer- 
cial spirit,  but  wishes  only  to  live  as 
his  father  lived  and  to  gain  the  mod- 
est income  which  suffices  for  his  wants. 
The  combination  seems  odd,  — •  a  readi- 
ness to  make  large  and  illegal  gains 
242 


3Iapan,  its  People  anD  Customs 

and  the  lack  of  enterprise  in  trade,— 
but  it  is  something  every  resident  dis- 
covers to  be  a  fact.  Every  ton  of  coal 
which  enters  the  house  and  every 
quantity  of  sugar  or  flour  or  fruit  must 
be  watched  or  the  buyer  will  find  him- 
self defrauded,  while  the  supply  of  milk 
is  so  adulterated  that  I  have  known 
careful  housekeepers  who  demanded 
that  the  cow  be  milked  in  their  pre- 
sence and  the  milk  put  directly  into 
their  receptacles. 

Servants  also  form  a  class  by  them- 
selves, but  they  are  recruited  from  all 
the  other  classes.  Domestic  service 
has  no  stigma  attached  to  it.  In  the 
feudal  days  much  of  the  personal  ser- 
vice was  rendered  by  gentlemen,  who 
were  honored  by  such  attentions  to 
their  lords.  In  a  feudal  society,  where 
status  is  fixed,  there  is  no  danger  of 
overstepping  the  bounds  of  propriety, 
and  the  servant  may  be  an  honored 
member  of  the  family.  So,  often,  men 
and  women  chose  to  follow  their  mas- 

243 


Cbe  Spirit  of  tbe  HDriem 


ters,  even  when  in  misfortune  there 
could  be  no  wages  but  only  suffering 
and  poverty. 

My  own  cook  was  a  samurai.  Once 
on  a  steamer  I  saw  him  talking  to  a 
high  official  of  the  government  who 
was  going  to  Germany  to  purchase 
guns  for  the  navy.  On  inquiry  I  found 
that  the  two  in  the  old  days  had  been 
fellow  clansmen,  but  that  my  servant 
had  suffered  in  the  changes  made  by 
the  introduction  of  modern  ways,  while 
his  old  comrade  had  profited.  My  man 
had  charge  of  all  our  domestic  con- 
cerns. No  new  servant  could  stay  with 
us  against  his  wishes,  and  he  was  al- 
ways consulted  when  there  was  a  va- 
cancy. He  made  the  purchases,  ren- 
dering his  account  every  morning  and 
having  his  percentage  of  profit  on  all. 
He  would  run  the  house  without  an 
order  for  a  month  at  a  time,  and  some- 
times when  his  mistress  was  absent 
and  I  had  friends  for  dinner,  he  would 
arrange  the  menu,  buy  flowers  and 
244 


3lapan,  it0  people  ana  Customs 

decorate  the  table,  and  in  general  put 
me  entirely  at  my  ease.  So,  too,  in  go- 
ing into  the  country  for  a  vacation,  he 
would  make  a  list  of  needed  articles, 
send  them  off  by  express,  precede  us 
to  the  cottage  in  the  mountains,  put 
things  in  order,  and  greet  us  on  our 
arrival  with  dinner  prepared  and  all 
things  in  readiness.  He  was  our  loyal 
retainer,  and  would  go  forth  with  us 
to  the  ends  of  the  earth.  I  doubt  not 
he  would  come  to  us  were  we  to  re- 
turn to  Japan  after  these  years  of  ab- 
sence, for  we  are  still  his  master  and 
mistress.  That  is  the  servant  at  his 
best;  but  there  are  others,  untrust- 
worthy, careless,  wasteful,  drunken,  for 
human  nature  is  the  same  in  Japan  as 
in  the  United  States;  it  varies  with  in- 
dividuals, and  one  may  not  generalize 
from  a  limited  experience. 
Japan  differs  from  the  continent  of 
Asia  in  its  natural  scenery  as  in  the 
characteristics  of  its  people.  Instead 
of  vast  plains,  great  mountain  ranges 

245 


Spirit  of  t6e£Dtiem 


and  mighty  rivers  there  are  hills  and 
valleys,  with  the  ever-present  sea.  No 
land  excels  it  in  picturesqueness,  and 
in  none  do  the  people  more  perfectly 
fit  their  land.  They  love  it  as  their  only 
home,  they  rejoice  in  its  beauty,  and 
'  they  make  their  constructions  suit  its 
features.  Their  old  legends  relate  the 
birth  of  the  islands  first,  and  then  the 
birth  of  the  people.  All  are  alike  in 
their  descent  and  in  their  divinity.  All 
alike,  we  may  add,  share  in  defects, 
since  nothing  is  perfect  upon  earth. 
The  same  volcanic  force  which  gave 
the  islands  their  striking  forms  still 
works,  making  the  land  quake  and 
tremble.  In  one  earthquake,  in  1891, 
more  than  ten  thousand  persons  were 
killed  and  a  hundred  thousand  houses 
were  destroyed.  The  same  winds  from 
the  south  which  bring  clouds  of  warm 
moisture  and  pour  their  contents  upon 
the  hills  bring  also  devastating  ty- 
phoons which  seem  to  laugh  at  the  la- 
bors of  men.  Nowhere  is  nature  more 
246 


3|apan,  its  People  anD  Customs 

beautiful,  nowhere  more  terrible. 
There  is  something  akin  to  this  in  the 
Japanese  themselves.  No  people  are 
more  perfectly  trained  to  courtesy. 
When  once  I  ran  over  a  man  in  the 
street  with  my  bicycle  he  picked  him- 
self up  and  begged  my  pardon  for  get- 
ting in  my  way.  Nowhere  are  there 
greater  finish  and  nicety  in  workman- 
ship and  art.  Yet  withal  there  are  ter- 
rible forces,  which  when  once  aroused 
astonish  us  by  their  power.  In  the  next 
chapter  let  us  attempt  to  study  this 
character  more  closely,  that  we  may, 
in  part  at  least,  understand  at  once  the 
Japanese  achievements  and  the  pro- 
blems which  still  await  their  solution. 


VIII 

Japan,  its  Spirit  ana 


VIII 

anD 


N  the  end  of  the  last  chap- 
ter reference  was  made  to 
the  Japanese  tradition.  It  is 
not  very  interesting,  and  is 
wanting  in  the  beauty  which  charac- 
terizes the  myths  of  other  peoples.  But 
it  indicates  a  belief  in  the  divinity  of 
the  land  and  of  its  people.  Perhaps  di- 
vinity is  too  strong  a  word,  as  the  word 
in  the  Japanese  means  only  "superi- 
or." So  we  may  amend  the  sentence  to 
read  "in  the  excellence  of  the  land  and 
of  its  people." 

The  world  is  astonished  at  the  results 
produced  in  the  last  generation.  It  is 
only  a  little  over  fifty  years  since  Com- 
modore Perry  made  the  first  treaty, 
and  it  is  not  yet  fifty  years  since  the 
first  American  was  admitted  to  the 
empire  as  a  resident.  It  was  a  grudg- 
ing admission,  with  the  purpose  of 
closing  the  door  completely  again  af- 

251 


€&e  Spirit  of  t&e£Drient 


ter  a  little.  But  that  proved  an  impos- 
sibility, and  so  after  many  troubles, 
which  we  cannot  here  stop  to  relate, 
less  than  forty  years  ago  the  people 
made  up  their  minds  definitely  that 
the  policy  of  seclusion  was  impossible, 
and  that  Japan  must  come  forward 
and  take  its  place  among  the  great 
nations  of  the  earth. 

Here  was  a  momentous  resolution, 
one  unparalleled  indeed,  and  few  be- 
lieved that  it  could  be  carried  into  ac- 
tion. When  I  went  to  Japan  twenty- 
eight  years  ago,  in  1877,  the  movement 
was  well  under  way.  The  young  men 
were  full  of  enthusiasm  and  of  un- 
daunted confidence.  "When  foreign- 
ers came  to  Japan  three  hundred  years 
ago  we  were  their  equals,  but  we  have 
been  asleep,  while  they  have  been 
wide  awake.  What  they  have  done  in 
three  hundred  years  we  must  do  in 
thirty."  That  was  the  spirit  which  ani- 
mated young  Japan,  and  of  course  all 
the  wise  men  laughed ;  they  had  heard 
252 


3Iapan,  its  Spirit  and 


boys  talk  before  !  Very  few  had  confi- 
dence in  the  ability  of  the  people  or 
in  their  perseverance.  "They  are  first- 
class  copyists,"  we  were  told,  "and 
will  take  on  a  superficial  polish  of 
Western  civilization,  but  they  are  Asi- 
atics, and  between  Asiatics  and  Euro- 
peans there  is  a  great  gulf  fixed.  "The 
people  did  not  pay  attention  to  the 
criticism,  but  went  their  way;  they 
engaged  foreign  instructors,—  Ameri- 
cans, Englishmen,  Germans,  French- 
men,— and  they  sent  endless  delega- 
tions to  Europe  and  to  America  to 
investigate  and  to  study.  It  was  a 
great  vision  of  a  great  world  which 
greeted  them,  and  they  recognized 
its  greatness. 

What  they  have  accomplished  the 
world  knows.  The  same  group  of  men 
are  still  in  control,  now  no  longer 
young,  supported  in  their  task  by  other 
young  men  trained  by  themselves  and 
of  like  spirit.  None  now  talks  about 
superficial  imitation,  for  the  test  has 

253 


Cbe  Spirit  of  tjjeffl)uent 


been  of  the  hardest,  and  every  portion 
of  the  organization  has  come  forth 
with  glory.  The  empire  has  been 
transformed;  what  the  West  accom- 
plished in  three  hundred  years  Japan 
has  done  in  thirty,  and  the  nation  takes 
its  place  among  the  world  powers. 
Here  is  the  greatest  of  contrasts  to 
India  and  to  China.  Europeans  have 
come  to  think  of  Asia  as  an  area  for 
exploitation.  Any  bold  soldier  with  a 
thousand  troops  could  march  through 
China;  and  the  smallness  of  England's 
garrison  in  India  is  one  of  the  wonders 
of  the  world.  The  East  has  lacked 
power  of  organization,  of  attention  to 
detail,  of  thoroughgoing  discipline,  of 
patient  working  to  great  and  distant 
ends.  It  has  been  absorbed  in  the  con- 
templation of  "the  Ultimate  and  the 
Absolute,"  and  it  has  submitted  in  the 
present  world  to  more  militant  races. 
But  Japan  has  proved  itself  possessed 
in  high  degree  of  the  very  qualities 
which  we  have  regarded  as  peculiarly 
254 


g[apan,  its  Spirit  anD 


belonging  to  the  Occident. 

We  have  many  explanations  of  the 
phenomena,  but  behind  them  all  is  this 
character.  There  is  something  in  the 
nature  of  the  Japanese  which  differen- 
tiates them  from  their  fellows.  Yet,  as 
already  indicated,  it  is  not  merely  he- 
redity. Put  the  Chinaman  and  the  Ja- 
panese in  the  same  circumstances  from 
childhood,  and  we  doubt  if  the  differ- 
ences would  be  great;  but  the  environ- 
ment has  been  different  and  with  cor- 
respondingly different  results. 

As  we  pointed  out  in  the  last  chapter, 
the  Japanese  derived  their  civilization 
from  the  continent,  Korea,  China  and 
India  all  contributing  to  it.  In  the 
seventh  and  eighth  centuries  of  our 
era  the  Japanese  were  as  eager  to 
adopt  the  best  as  in  our  own  time. 
They  had  been  semi-barbarous  when 
they  became  acquainted  with  a  com- 
pleted civilization,  and  they  set  them- 
selves to  master  it,  and  in  the  course 
of  three  centuries  succeeded.  The 

255 


Cbe  Spirit  of  tbe  2Dtient 


higher  classes  began  the  work,  and 
from  them  the  new  enlightenment 
spread  throughout  the  nation.  The 
native  religion,  Shinto,  gave  place  to 
Buddhism ;  the  old  form  of  semi-tribal 
government  gave  way  to  a  central- 
ized empire ;  the  old  huts  which  had 
done  even  for  the  emperor  were  re- 
built on  Chinese  models.  The  law,  in- 
dustry, the  whole  life,  was  reformed 
upon  continental  models,  with  China- 
men and  Koreans  as  instructors,  and 
by  and  by  with  native  Japanese  who 
had  visited  the  Asiatic  continent  as 
leaders. 

But  while  thus  Chinese  civilization 
was  teacher  and  model,  the  Japanese 
were  not  simply  imitators,  for  how 
unlike  China  is  Japan  in  our  day,  in 
its  houses,  its  gardens,  its  customs, 
its  ideals,  its  ways  of  life,  its  social 
organization !  The  old  civilization  was 
not  an  indiscriminate  adoption;  there 
was  no  attempt  to  make  Japan  a  sec- 
ond and  an  inferior  China,  but  there 
256 


3lapan,ttg  Spirit  ano 


was  intelligent  adoption,  and  then 
adaptation.  The  needs  were  different, 
and  the  organization  must  fit  the 
needs. 

In  our  own  day  the  same  process  is 
going  on.  Again  the  Japanese  came 
in  contact  with  a  civilization  superior 
to  their  own.  They  saw  at  a  glance 
that  they  could  not  compete  with  the 
wide-awake,  scientific  nations  of  the 
West  if  they  were  to  continue  on  the 
old  lines.  As  well  might  junks  contend 
with  steamships  as  the  Chinese  civil- 
ization with  modern  enlightenment. 
It  was  not  a  question  as  to  which  was 
better  in  the  abstract,  but  it  was  the 
concrete  question,  What  are  we  go- 
ing to  do  about  it?  There  are  foreign- 
ers who  regret  the  transformation,  the 
old  was  so  unique  and  so  attractive  ; 
and  indeed  if  the  chief  end  of  the  Ja- 
panese is  to  furnish  amusement  to  tra- 
vellers, then  the  old  was  better.  But 
for  men  of  ambition,  for  a  people  who 
wished  to  play  an  important  part  in 

257 


Cbe  Spirit  of  tfie  flDrient 


the  world,  there  could  be  no  question, 
and  the  intelligence  of  the  Japanese 
is  shown  by  their  immediate  compre- 
hension of  that  fact.  The  Chinese  had 
known  Europe  for  a  longer  time,  but 
they  had  not  grasped  the  situation, 
nor  had  they  yet  fully  understood  it, 
while  meantime  the  Japanese  saw, 
understood,  and  set  themselves  to 
conquer. 

Again,  as  in  the  first  reformation  in 
the  seventh  and  eighth  centuries,  it 
was  the  higher  classes  which  took 
the  lead.  It  could  not  be  otherwise. 
Only  the  samurai  possessed  the  quali- 
ties which  make  for  leadership,  and 
only  their  intelligence  was  thoroughly 
trained.  After  the  feudal  wars  ceased, 
say  in  the  year  1600,  there  ensued  a 
long  period  of  peace.  During  this  time 
the  gentlemen  studied  the  Chinese 
literature  and  philosophy.  It  was  se- 
vere discipline,  but  it  taught  the  value 
of  learning  and  the  process  of  acquir- 
ing it.  Hence  when  Japan  was  opened 
258 


3lapan,its  Spirit  ana  Problems 

again  to  foreigners  there  were  a  large 
number  of  trained  young  men  ready 
for  modern  learning.  They  thronged 
the  schools  where  English  was  taught, 
and  they  visited  foreign  lands  in  com- 
panies. They  did  not  doubt  that  what 
men  had  learned  they  could  learn,  and 
they  wanted  the  highest  and  best  in 
mathematics,  in  philosophy,  in  sci- 
ence, in  the  practical  arts.  Nor  were 
they  content  with  knowledge  for  them- 
selves. They  knew  the  gulf  between 
the  common  people  and  the  gentle- 
men was  caused  in  part  by  the  pri- 
vileges and  in  greater  part  by  the 
education  of  the  latter,  so  privileges 
were  done  away  with  and  provision 
was  made  for  the  education  of  all  the 
people. 

But  we  may  well  ask  ourselves  what 
was  the  motive  power  in  all  this  trans- 
formation. Why  should  a  nation  go 
to  school  with  such  enthusiasm,  and 
why  should  men  of  a  special  class 
seek  the  elevation  of  the  people?  The 

259 


€6e  Spirit  of  tbe  SDrient 


answer  can  be  found  only  as  we  study 
again  the  character  of  the  samurai. 
As  we  remember,  he  was  the  retainer 
of  a  baron.  He  lived  the  life  of  a  sol- 
dier, and  his  ethics  were  those  of  a 
soldier.  His  first  duty  was  loyalty.  He 
was  told  stories  of  the  men  of  old  who 
gave  up  all  things  for  the  sake  of  lord 
and  country;  he  was  instructed  that 
his  body  was  not  his  own  but  his  mas- 
ter's, and  that  his  glory  should  be  in 
unhesitating  obedience  and  self-sacri- 
fice. He  was  taught  that  wealth  and 
luxury  might  be  attained  by  mer- 
chants, but  should  be  despised  by 
samurai.  In  some  of  the  clans  he  was 
separated  from  home  at  an  early  age 
and  put  with  other  youths  of  his  own 
age  that  his  martial  spirit  might  be 
fostered  and  he  be  brought  up  as  the 
ward  of  his  clan.  Above  all  he  was 
taught  that  his  own  life  was  not  of 
importance.  His  education,  whether 
through  Buddhism  directly  or  more 
likely  through  the  Chinese  philosophy, 
260 


Japan,  it0  Spirit  anD  Problems 

impressed  upon  him  the  shortness  of 
life  and  the  certainty  of  death,  and 
that  whether  soon  or  late  was  not  of 
consequence.  So  too  with  all  earthly 
happiness,  it  could  not  long  endure, 
and  what  we  call  success  is  a  small 
matter.  What  is  of  consequence  is 
honor,  and  duty,  and,  above  all,  loy- 
alty. The  boy  was  told  the  story  of 
the  national  heroes  and  of  his  fami- 
ly. On  certain  anniversaries  children 
were  gathered  together,  and  their  pa- 
rents taught  them  that  the  spirits  of 
their  ancestors  were  present.  Then  the 
story  of  the  family  would  be  related 
and  the  boys  and  girls  exhorted  to 
live  worthily,  so  that  the  honor  of  the 
family  might  be  maintained  and  the 
spirit  of  the  ancestors  be  gratified. 
With  such  training  there  was  de- 
veloped a  consciousness  of  social  soli- 
darity and  the  perception  that  none 
liveth  to  himself.  A  man's  life  was  in 
his  group,  and  he  identified  himself 
with  its  prosperity  and  adversity,  so 

261 


Cbe  Spirit  of  tfie  flDrient 


that  men  and  women  did  not  wish  to 
survive  the  defeat  of  their  clan  or 
party,  but  preferred  to  kill  themselves 
and  to  perish  when  all  hope  was 
past.  So  a  husband  would  unhesi- 
tatingly sacrifice  his  home  ties  for  the 
sake  of  his  feudal  lord,  and  the  wife 
was  taught  also  to  put  husband  and 
lord  ever  before  herself.  Naturally  so 
high  an  ideal  was  often  violated,  for 
no  more  in  Japan  than  elsewhere  have 
the  ideal  and  the  real  been  the  same. 
But,  nevertheless,  a  high  ideal  is  a 
priceless  possession.  It  stimulates  he- 
roism, it  promotes  virtue  and  it  estab- 
lishes a  standard  of  judgment.  There 
were  traitors  and  self-seekers  and 
disobedient  sons  and  unfaithful  ser- 
vants as  in  the  rest  of  the  world.  In 
periods  the  ideal  seemed  to  perish 
and  corruption  to  triumph.  Yet  the 
ideal  was  never  wholly  lost,  nor  were 
there  wanting  "righteous"  men  who 
embodied  it. 

The  ideal  itself  was  not  perfect.  It 
262 


Japan,  its  Spirit  anD  problems 

laid  too  great  stress  upon  the  organ- 
ism and  too  little  upon  the  individual. 
Heroism  and  self-sacrifice  would  atone 
for  all  faults,  and  a  man  might  live 
much  as  he  pleased  in  his  personal 
conduct  if  as  samurai  he  maintained 
the  standard  of  knightly  devotion.  In 
the  story  of  the  "Forty-seven  Ro- 
nins,"  the  most  popular  of  Japanese 
tales,  the  leader,  in  his  desire  for  ven- 
geance upon  the  enemy  of  his  lord, 
debauches  himself,  drives  away  his 
wife,  wastes  his  property,  consorts 
with  the  lowest  men  and  women,  and 
lives  a  life  of  drunkenness  and  pro- 
fligacy, all  in  order  that  he  might 
throw  his  enemy  off  his  guard.  Suc- 
cessful in  this,  he  slew  his  foe  and  then 
committed  hara-kiri,  obtaining  for 
himself  and  comrades  the  enthusiastic 
plaudits  of  the  nation.  The  deed  was 
done  early  in  the  eighteenth  century, 
and  still  the  people  never  weary  of 
the  story,  and  still  the  graves  of  the 
heroes  are  ornamented  with  flowers. 

263 


€&e  Spirit  of  tfie  fiDrient 


These  men  are  called  by  way  of  pre- 
eminence the  "righteous  samurai." 
We  indeed  question  the  right  of  a 
man  thus  to  transgress  every  rule  of 
private  virtue  and  to  debauch  him- 
self, but  we  cannotwithhold  our  praise 
for  such  thoroughgoing  loyalty. 
When  Japan  came  into  contact  with 
the  Occident  loyalty  supplied  the 
power  needed  for  its  transformation. 
The  alternative  presented  was,  sub- 
mit to  the  West  as  India  has  sub- 
mitted or  learn  from  it.  With  that 
alternative  faced  there  could  be  no 
doubt  as  to  the  choice:  Japan  must 
be  made  the  peer  of  the  greatest.  The 
passionate  patriotism  which  lies  be- 
neath the  placid  exterior  of  Oriental 
politeness  forced  forward  the  young 
men,  whose  labors  and  studies  were 
always  "for  the  sake  of  my  country" 
and  never  for  themselves.  In  these 
professions  there  was  more  or  less 
hypocrisy  doubtless,  but  it  was  un- 
conscious for  the  most  part,  and 
264 


31apan,  its  Spirit  ana  H9roft!em0 

mixed  motives  were  present  only  as 
everywhere  in  this  world  of  mingled 
good  and  evil.  The  patriotism  was  a 
living  force,  and  the  ideal  a  guide  and 
a  judge. 

Early  in  the  movement  some  of  the 
samurai  set  themselves  to  create  a 
national  patriotism.  It  had  been  the 
inspiration  of  a  class;  it  was  now  to  be 
made  the  virtue  of  a  people.  It  was 
early  seen  that  only  a  nation  which 
commands  the  allegiance  of  all  its 
children  could  take  the  place  Japan 
aspired  to  reach ;  hence  the  emperor 
was  made  the  symbol  of  the  nation, 
taking  the  place  of  the  flag  with  us, 
and  a  loyalty  to  him  was  cultivated. 
He  responded,  giving  up  a  part  of  his 
autocratic  power,  creating  a  constitu- 
tion, ruling  under  it  as  a  constitutional 
monarch,  showing  himself  in  public, 
looking  after  the  welfare  of  his  people 
in  many  ways,  and  making  himself  one 
with  them  so  far  as  that  is  possible. 
He  ceased  to  be  a  god,  and  became 

265 


Cbe  Spirit  of  tfteflDrient 


the  head  of  his  fellow-countrymen. 
Thus  he  was  more  than  a  mere  symbol, 
for  he  became  an  active  agent  in  the 
transformation  of  his  people. 

Great  problems  remain  which  require 
wisdom  and  perseverance  beyond  even 
the  tasks  of  the  past.  In  the  compari- 
son it  is  easy  to  organize  an  army  and 
to  make  over  the  machinery  of  the 
state,  but  the  thorough  training  of  a 
nation  is  of  supreme  difficulty.  Let  us 
take  up  the  divisions  of  activity  and 
set  forth  their  problems. 

First  of  all  is  the  government.  Great 
as  has  been  the  advance,  those  who 
know  the  situation  best  will  be  the 
last  to  claim  that  the  situation  is  sa- 
tisfactory. In  the  presence  of  the  for- 
eign foe  all  domestic  divisions  disap- 
peared, but  only  for  the  time.  Now 
that  peace  is  declared  the  old  es- 
trangement will  show  itself  again.  The 
empire  is  now  under  a  constitution, 
with  an  emperor  who  has  limited  his 
own  powers,  a  ministry  subject  only 
266 


3[apan,  its  Spirit  and  Problems 

to  him,  a  diet  in  two  houses,  with  the 
lower  in  practical  control,  and  with  a 
bureaucracy  which  occupies  a  posi- 
tion of  peculiar  importance  and  inde- 
pendence. It  is  often  the  real  power 
behind  the  throne.  The  situation  grows 
out  of  the  history  of  the  recent  past. 
In  the  revolution  of  1867-9  three 
great  clans  took  the  lead,  and  upon 
its  successful  conclusion  they  were  in 
command  of  the  empire.  A  small  mi- 
nority fought  the  war,  and  a  small  mi- 
nority was  therefore  in  power.  Soon  a 
quarrel  broke  out  among  the  victors, 
and  one  of  the  three  clans  withdrew 
from  the  coalition,  while  the  second 
became  involved  in  domestic  strife 
and  finally  in  war.  As  a  result,  a  group 
of  powerful,  intelligent  and  intensely 
patriotic  men,  being  few  in  number, 
had  undisputed  possession  of  all  the 
sources  of  power.  Their  subordinates 
were  given  the  offices  in  army,  navy, 
police,  education,  finance ;  all  the  places 
of  vital  control  were  parcelled  out 

267 


Cte  Spirit  of  t6effl)n'ent 

among  them,  and  the  government  was 
really  by  the  samurai  of  two  clans, 
Satsuma  and  Choshu.  Hence  in  the 
course  of  a  few  years  was  built  up  a 
bureaucracy  of  great  power.  It  still 
continues,  though  men  from  other 
clans  have  been  admitted  to  positions 
of  influence,  and  on  the  whole  the 
scheme  has  been  widened  and  liberal- 
ized. None  the  less  it  has  made  and 
unmade  ministries  and  controlled  the 
policy  of  the  empire. 
Side  by  side  with  this  is  the  Impe- 
rial Diet.  Its  formation  was  promised 
in  the  beginning  of  the  new  era,  but 
its  establishment  was  the  result  of  a 
widespread  agitation  attended  with 
intense  political  excitement.  It  has 
now  been  established  long  enough  for 
the  formation  of  a  fair  estimate  of  its 
value,  and  this,  as  perhaps  we  should 
have  anticipated,  has  been  neither  as 
low  as  its  opponents  feared,  nor  as 
great  as  its  advocates  prophesied.  Its 
life,  excepting  during  periods  of  war, 
268 


3[apan,  its  Spirit  anp 


has  been  a  continual  struggle  for 
greater  powers.  The  ministry  is  sub- 
ject only  to  the  will  of  the  emperor, 
but  the  Diet  has  sought  to  subject  it 
to  itself.  In  general  we  may  say  the 
contest  has  been  between  the  German 
and  the  English  parliamentary  sys- 
tems, with  the  probability  at  times  that 
the  latter  would  prevail.  The  pecul- 
iar character  of  Japanese  politics  has 
always  prevented,  for  great  parties 
after  the  fashion  of  American  and 
English  public  life  are  not  found,  but 
groups,  somewhat  in  the  French  fash- 
ion. The  old  loyalty  continues,  a  loyal- 
ty to  individuals;  so  that  great  states- 
men have  their  devoted  followers  who 
care  little  for  principles  but  much  for 
men.  Thus  the  personal  element  pre- 
dominates, the  real  divisions  have 
centred  in  men,  and  the  incessant 
struggles  have  resulted  in  the  sub- 
stitution of  one  set  of  politicians  for 
another  rather  than  in  measures  of 
high  utility.  Before  the  outbreak  of 

269 


Spirit  of  t&e  ©rient 


the  late  war  there  were  signs  that  the 
people  were  losing  interest  in  the  con- 
test, and  that  the  nation  would  relapse 
into  an  attitude  of  passive  compla- 
cence whoever  should  rule.  Evidently 
the  problem  which  must  be  solved  in 
the  years  to  come  is  this:  How  shall 
the  forms  of  constitutional  govern- 
ment be  made  a  reality?  Is  it  possible 
that  the  ancient  principle  of  loyalty  to 
the  individual  can  be  replaced  by  loy- 
alty to  principles,  and  can  the  ancient 
solidarity  of  the  clan,  which  so  readily 
becomes  the  solidarity  of  a  great  bu- 
reaucracy, give  place  to  the  real  gov- 
ernment by  and  for  the  people?  Mani- 
festly it  is  easier  to  change  forms  than 
to  regenerate  the  spirit;  and  perhaps 
more  has  been  accomplished  already 
than  could  have  been  expected.  For 
elections  with  free  discussions,  and  a 
free  press  which  reaches  all  intelligent 
people,  and  the  interest  in  the  proceed- 
ings of  the  Diet,  are  powerful  engines 
for  the  production  of  the  material  out 
270 


Japan,  its  Spirit  ana  problems 

of  which  really  constitutional  and  mod- 
ern states  are  formed. 

But  on  this  issue  depends  largely 
the  future  of  the  empire.  No  more  in 
Japan  than  elsewhere  can  a  bureau- 
cracy be  trusted  with  the  control  of  a 
people.  Government  for  the  people  in 
time  inevitably  becomes  government 
for  a  group  of  men.  Neither  creed  nor 
race  nor  excellence  of  intention  can 
prevent  the  operation  of  that  natural 
law.  Japan  has  already  shown  that  it 
is  not  exempt.  While  the  statesmen 
who  have  controlled  it  have  been  pa- 
triots of  high  purpose,  yet  Tokyo  has 
been  filled  with  stories  of  "govern- 
ment merchants"  whose  contracts 
would  not  stand  examination,  and  of 
monopolies  of  various  kinds  estab- 
lished by  government  grants  and  with 
profits  shared  by  men  who  granted 
them.  The  results  are  inevitable  in 
the  future,  whatever  may  be  the  false- 
ness of  the  rumors  now ;  but  there  is 
evidence  that  not  even  the  patriotism 

271 


C6e  Spirit  of  tbeflDuent 


of  the  Japanese  in  its  transition  pe- 
riod has  been  proof  against  sordid 
gain ;  while  if  we  turn  to  the  past,  un- 
der the  old  feudal  system,  there  is 
proof  in  plenty  of  widespread  misman- 
agement and  corruption.  The  system 
at  the  end  was  rotten,  and  had  it  then 
been  brought  to  the  supreme  test  it 
would  have  collapsed  as  completely 
as  has  Russia.  The  same  causes  will 
in  time  show  the  same  effects,  and  the 
hope  of  escape  is  through  the  com- 
plete carrying  out  of  the  plans  now 
begun. 

It  is  true  the  Diet  itself  has  not  been 
free  from  corruption  nor  from  petty 
and  disgraceful  intrigue.  Human  na- 
ture everywhere  asserts  itself  in  its 
evil  as  in  its  good.  But,  while  the  Diet 
has  been  far  from  perfect,  and  while 
its  members  have  shown  themselves 
unable  to  form  effective  combinations, 
still  its  publicity  and  its  responsibili- 
ty to  the  people  will  aid  in  educating 
an  electorate  which  shall  require  not 
272 


3Iapan,  its  Spirit  anD 


only  patriotism  but  honesty,  as  indeed 
the  public  already  requires  these  vir- 
tues. The  one  real  advantage  of  the 
parliamentary  system  is  this  :  while  a 
bureaucracy  may  conceal  its  faults,  a 
parliament  commits  its  faults  in  the 
sight  of  Heaven. 

There  are  commercial  problems  of 
great  seriousness.  Japan,  as  we  have 
seen,  has  not  been  a  commercial  land, 
and  its  ethical  code  has  been  that  of 
the  soldier.  Hence  commercial  hon- 
esty has  not  been  cultivated,  and  in 
our  age  the  people  are  at  a  great  dis- 
advantage. Already  the  manufacturers 
and  merchants  are  notorious,  and  the 
friends  of  the  people  are  kept  busy 
with  explanations.  A  thoroughgoing 
reformation,  root  and  branch,  is  ne- 
cessary if  the  empire  is  to  take  a  place 
in  peace  corresponding  to  that  which 
it  has  won  in  war.  The  most  hopeful 
sign  is  that  the  leading  men  are  awake 
to  this  serious  deficiency  and  are  seek- 
ing by  education  to  remedy  it. 

273 


Cbe  Spirit  of  tbe  Drtent 


On  the  material  side  also  the  pro- 
blems are  very  great.  Japan  is  poor,  it 
cannot  compare  with  a  third-rate  Eu- 
ropean state,  yet  it  seeks  to  maintain 
itself  as  a  first-class  power.  It  finds 
poverty  a  check  to  its  advance,  for 
modern  civilization  is  expensive.  A 
Japanese  could  live  in  the  United 
States  as  cheaply  as  in  Japan,  but  he 
will  not.  None  so  lives  here,  and  our 
poverty  would  be  a  sufficiency  there. 
A  man  with  a  dollar  and  a  half  a  day 
in  Tokyo  even  would  count  himself 
well  off,  and  could  live  much  as  he 
chose.  But  that  is  because  of  the  sim- 
plicity of  life,  a  simplicity  which  gives 
way  through  contact  with  foreign 
ways.  Hence  there  arise  a  new  re- 
spect for  wealth  and  a  new  desire  for  it. 
Art  has  been  commercialized,  as  have 
literature  and  the  aspirations  of  young 
men.  But  how  shall  these  new  aspira- 
tions be  gratified,  how  shall  even  the 
rightful  measure  of  added  comfort  be 
attained?  For  the  vision  of  a  regener- 
274 


Japan,  its  Spirit  anD  Problems 


ated  Japan  must  include  a  certain  ad- 
vancement in  material  resources.  Al- 
ready the  air  of  some  of  the  towns  is 
black  with  coal  smoke  as  a  partial  an- 
swer, while  all  the  natural  resources 
of  the  empire  are  studied  with  scien- 
tific thoroughness,  and  the  newly  won 
lands  beyond  the  seas  are  looked  to 
as  affording  an  outlet  for  the  too  dense 
population. 

But  with  these  new  methods  come 
new  problems,  new  to  Japan  but  old 
to  us,  of  strikes  and  child  labor  and 
exhausting  hours  for  adults,  of  the 
distribution  of  profits,  of  the  forma- 
tion of  a  wealthy,  monopolistic  group, 
of  strikes  and  socialism  and  the  en- 
tire list  so  familiar,  questions  which  Ja- 
pan must  answer  as  we  must  answer 
them,  with  no  royal  road  for  either. 

Allied  with  this  is  the  educational 
problem.  As  in  politics,  the  forms  of 
the  most  enlightened  nations  are 
adopted,  but  the  system  is  handi- 
capped by  the  use  of  Chinese,  a  form 

275 


C6e  Spirit  of  tfte  Drient 


of  writing  which  makes  disproportion- 
ate demands  upon  the  strength  and 
time  of  the  student  for  mastery  over 
the  mere  mechanism  of  education. 
As  a  result  the  vast  majority  of  chil- 
dren cannot  study  long  enough  to 
gain  a  really  intelligent  notion  of 
the  world  they  live  in.  Even  less  than 
our  own  children  who  end  their  train- 
ing with  the  primary  school  can  the 
Japanese  boys  and  girls  be  regard- 
ed as  prepared  to  take  an  interest  in 
intellectual  affairs.  They  are  poorly 
equipped  even  for  the  reading  of  the 
newspaper  or  the  most  ordinary  lit- 
erature. Then  a  smaller  proportion 
than  with  us  go  on  to  the  secondary 
and  high  schools ;  while,  instead  of  our 
great  multitude  in  college  and  in  uni- 
versity, only  an  extremely  select  mi- 
nority, very  small  in  numbers,  can  en- 
ter the  corresponding  institutions. 
Here  the  want  of  wealth  makes  itself 
felt,  stern  necessity  compelling  the 
vast  majority  to  forego  the  higher  ed- 
276 


3lapan,  its  Spirit  ano 


ucation.  Yet  the  great  majority  thus 
hindered  is  the  real  source  of  the  na- 
tion's strength,  and  if  trained  it  would 
add  to  it  incalculably.  Again,  none  is 
more  alive  to  the  situation  than  are 
the  leading  Japanese,  and  none  clearer 
in  the  knowledge  that  it  is  a  condition 
and  not  a  theory,  a  condition  which  can 
be  met  only  by  long  continued  efforts 
for  generations. 

The  moral  problem  has  already  been 
indicated  in  part,  so  far  as  it  concerns 
business.  We  may  not  discuss  here 
the  question  of  the  relation  of  the 
sexes,  but  it  is  even  more  serious.  A 
thoroughgoing  reformation  is  needed 
in  the  domain  of  sexual  ethics,  with 
new  ideals  and  new  laws  and  cus- 
toms. Here  is  the  second  blot  upon 
Japan's  fame,  and  here  the  apologist 
has  a  more  difficult  task,  as  he  cannot 
fall  back  upon  the  peculiarities  of  the 
feudal  ethics.  But  here  too  there  are 
indications  of  the  coming  of  a  better 
state  of  things.  In  Tokyo,  for  example, 

277 


€be  Spirit  of  the  ©nent 


a  group  of  gentlemen  of  high  social 
position  and  of  correspondingly  great 
influence  have  formed  a  league  for 
personal  purity  of  life ;  in  some  of  the 
provinces  laws  have  been  passed  a- 
gainst  public  prostitution,  and  Chris- 
tianity increasingly  makes  its  influ- 
ence felt. 

The  general  moral  problem  is  also 
serious.  Beautiful  as  was  the  loyalty 
of  old  Japan,  its  defects  were  appar- 
ent. As  already  indicated,  it  was  the 
ethics  of  the  soldier,  with  his  virtues 
and  his  vices.  To  a  soldier  all  is  per- 
mitted which  is  necessary  for  success, 
and  ulaws  are  silent  amid  arms,"  for 
that  which  would  be  crime  in  the 
peaceful  citizen  is  applauded  in  the 
warrior.  Hence  in  Japan  the  notion 
obtained  that  loyalty  excused  all  else, 
and  indeed  that  loyalty  might  require 
the  commission  of  the  most  abhorrent 
deeds.  Such  a  code  emphasized  for 
generations  could  not  fail  to  produce 
a  willingness  to  admit  all  means  as 
278 


3lapan,  its  Spirit  and  problems 

sanctified  by  the  ends.  With  loyalty 
to  lord  or  country  as  supreme  there 
could  be  no  "higher  law"  to  which 
even  patriotism  must  bend,  and  no 
more  holy  ideal  which  should  be  held 
sacred  though  the  heavens  fall. 
Such  an  ideal  requires  an  ethical  re- 
ligion, and  in  our  day  this  is  Japan's 
greatest  need.  It  has  been  the  ten- 
dency of  the  people  to  worship  the 
wonderful  and  the  extraordinary  in 
nature  and  in  man,  miraculous  power 
calling  forth  the  feelings  of  adoration 
and  submission.  This  sensitiveness  to 
the  wonderful  has  been  a  main  source 
of  the  people's  progress.  But  it  must 
be  supplemented  by  the  conviction 
that  the  highest  is  found  not  in  the 
fire  or  the  wind  or  the  earthquake, 
but  in  the  still  small  voice,  which  is 
the  word  of  God.  Through  the  Confu- 
cian philosophy  the  conviction  that 
righteousness  is  more  than  all  success 
and  more  truly  divine  than  all  wonders 
was  taught  to  the  elect, — to  the  intel- 

279 


Cbe  Spirit  of  tfce  HDrient 


lectual  few, — but  it  could  not  be  made 
effective  with  the  masses  of  the  people. 
A  more  potent  religion,  with  its  doc- 
trines of  the  holiness  of  God,  of  the 
righteousness  of  his  law,  and  of  the 
soul's  accountability  to  him,  will  fur- 
nish the  transforming  power  which 
shall  complete  the  regeneration  of  the 
people. 

Finally,  because  our  limit  is  reached, 
not  because  we  are  now  at  the  end, 
the  problem  is  how  to  adopt  the  new 
without  destroying  the  old;  how  to 
adapt  the  new  and  make  it  the  ex- 
pression of  the  true  Japanese  spirit. 
But  this  is  beyond  our  province,  per- 
haps beyond  human  province,  and  it 
must  be  left  to  the  Japanese  spirit, 
the  spirit  which  in  the  past  took  the 
Chinese  civilization  and  made  it  Japa- 
nese, and  which,  we  believe,  will  take 
our  modern  enlightenment  and  trans- 
form it  so  that  the  new  shall  be  bet- 
ter than  the  old,  and  yet,  like  it,  unique. 


IX 


HE  victory  of  Japan  over 
Russia  is  an  event  of  more 
than  local  or  of  Asiatic  sig- 
nificance; it  is  a  turning- 
point  in  the  history  of  the  world.  For 
the  first  time  in  millenniums  has  the 
East  defeated  the  West,  and  for  the 
first  time  in  centuries  has  an  Eastern 
power  contended  on  equal  terms  with 
a  European  empire.  Not  in  a  thousand 
years  has  such  a  spectacle  been  seen. 
With  this  victory  new  problems 
emerge.  The  sympathy  of  the  Ameri- 
can people  was  with  the  Asiatic 
against  the  European,  with  the  so- 
called  "heathen "against  the  so-called 
"Christian; "but  even  during  the  con- 
tinuance of  the  conflict  voices  were 
heard  which  in  warning  tones  an- 
nounced the  arrival  of  the  "yellow 
peril."  With  peace  these  voices  are 
still  heard,  and  we  are  told  that  the 

283 


Cbe  Spirit  of  tfce  Detent 


predominance  of  our  civilization  is 
threatened,  and  that  the  time  comes 
when  the  Asiatic  and  not  the  Euro- 
pean will  be  supreme. 

Our  too  cursory  survey  of  Asia,  its 
people  and  their  problems,  has  shown 
us  how  little  there  is  in  these  fears. 
India  is  not  yet  aroused,  and  how  long 
a  training  must  it  undergo  before  it 
can  put  itself  upon  an  equality  with 
the  West  in  material  things!  As  we 
have  seen,  its  ablest  sons  do  not  ask 
it;  they  are  content  with  the  "Ultimate 
and  the  Absolute,"  leaving  the  world 
to  more  materialistic  and  more  aggres- 
sive men.  To  make  India  a  factor  in 
an  aggressive  "yellow  peril"  would  re- 
quire the  complete  reversal  of  its  whole 
stream  of  tendency. 

So  too  with  China,  it  cares  little  for 
the  "Ultimate  and  the  Absolute"  and 
very  much  for  material  success,  but 
it  is  not  a  conquering  land.  Its  people 
firmly  believe  that  "the  meek  shall  in- 
herit the  earth,"  and  it  is  beyond  the 
284 


Cbe 


dreams  of  the  most  visionary  that  its 
multitudes  shall  set  themselves  in  mo- 
tion for  conquest  beyond  the  moun- 
tains and  the  seas.  For  centuries  de- 
fenceless states  have  maintained  them- 
selves upon  the  borders  of  the  Middle 
Kingdom,— Korea  *  and  Siam  and 
Burmah,— but  the  resistless  power  of 
the  Chinese  has  not  been  put  forth 
for  their  overthrow,  and  no  ambitious 
general  has  dreamed  of  universal  em- 
pire. To  start  upon  a  career  of  con- 
quest would  be  to  reverse  the  tradi- 
tions of  all  time,  and  to  run  counter 
to  the  most  firmly  established  convic- 
tions of  the  people. 
Nor  will  Japan  lightly  go  to  war 
again,  nor  will  it  be  led  into  ambitious 
projects  of  distant  conquest.  Its  lead- 
ers are  too  intelligent  and  understand 

*  The  relation  of  China  to  some  of  its  semi-dependencies  is  oddly 
shown  by  the  fact  that  the  Koreans  in  the  past  asked  permission  in 
vain  to  increase  the  tribute  paid  in  Peking:,  desiring  to  render  it 
more  frequently.  But  after  all  there  was  reason  in  their  request  and 
in  China's  refusal,  for  the  carrying:  of  the  tribute  was  made  an  occa- 
sion for  profitable  barter,  the  merchants  who  accompanied  the  am- 
bassador being-  permitted  to  take  in  their  wares  free  of  duty,  and 
gaining  much  more  than  they  paid. 

285 


C6e  Spirit 


too  thoroughly  their  powers  and  their 
limitations.  Japan's  position  as  a  mili- 
tary power  is  established,  and  it  will 
not  need  to  seek  for  further  recogni- 
tion; its  problems  are  those  of  com- 
merce and  of  industry  and  of  all  that 
belongs  to  peace.  It  will  give  itself  to 
these,  and  will  not  commit  the  su- 
preme folly  of  going  around  the  globe 
to  contend  with  European  powers  in 
their  own  waters  and  upon  their  own 
shores.  If  it  attempt  such  an  enter- 
prise it  will  be  because  it  is  as  foolish 
as  the  Russians;  and  whom  the  gods 
first  make  mad  they  destroy. 

But  while  few  men  seriously  contem- 
plate the  possibility  of  military  ag- 
gression, more  are  apprehensive  of  a 
commercial  struggle.  The  Chinese  es- 
pecially, with  their  patience,  industry, 
frugality  and  perseverance,  seem  for- 
midable competitors,  while  even  the 
Japanese,  notwithstanding  their  want 
of  large  experience,  may  prove  them- 
selves formidable  when  they  bring  the 
286 


Cbe 


same  scientific  intelligence  to  bear 
upon  the  pursuits  of  peace  as  they  have 
already  on  those  of  war.  But  again, 
summarily  and  for  the  moment,  let  us 
dismiss  these  idle  fears.  The  thorough 
awakening  of  China  is  still  only  among 
the  possibilities,  and  Japanese  com- 
mercial aggression  on  a  large  scale 
is  also  of  the  future.  But  granting  it 
all,  China  progressive,  manufacturing, 
awake,  Japan  increasing  in  wealth  as 
it  increases  in  the  scientific  use  of  elec- 
tricity and  of  steam,  does  any  one  sup- 
pose that  these  empires  will  be  less 
valuable  as  customers  when  thus  rich 
than  at  present  when  poor?  Does  the 
merchant  prefer  a  community  which 
is  poverty-stricken  and  bound  hand 
and  foot  in  conservatism  to  one  which 
is  alive  with  enterprise  and  rich  in 
productions?  Most  certainly  it  is  not 
in  the  continuance  of  present  condi- 
tions that  our  hopes  for  future  gain 
rest,  but  in  the  entrance  of  Asia  upon 
the  path  of  progress,  and  in  its  success 

287 


C6e  Spirit  of  t&e  Drient 


in  utilizing  the  forces  of  nature  as  it 
already  employs  to  their  limit  the  un- 
aided powers  of  man. 

If  indeed  our  ideal  is  the  unapproach- 
able supremacy  of  the  white  man,  if 
we  regard  Europeans  and  Americans 
as  predestined  to  rule,  and  if  our  as- 
piration is  the  division  of  China  and 
the  government  of  the  earth  by  the 
great  military  powers,  then  the  vic- 
tory of  Japan  is  portentous.  But  such 
we  are  persuaded  is  not  the  dream 
of  Americans.  The  arousing  of  Japan 
means  better  things  and  things  which 
pertain  unto  salvation. 

In  the  beginning  of  this  book  we  de- 
scribed the  differences  between  East 
and  West  as  the  result  of  our  mutual 
separation.  Once,  long  ago,  there  was 
no  East  nor  West  in  the  modern  sense, 
but  all  were  one,  with  differences  in  de- 
grees of  barbarism  and  of  archaic  ci- 
vilization. On  the  whole  Asia  preceded 
Europe  in  the  race,  and  Europe  en- 
tered into  the  fruits  of  the  Asiatic  heri- 
288 


C6e 


tage,  in  philosophy,  in  science,  in  reli- 
gion, in  art,  and  in  most  of  the  depart- 
ments of  civilized  life.  Asia  was  teacher, 
Europe  was  pupil.  Then  came  separa- 
tion, and  after  that  hostility  and  a  more 
complete  isolation.  During  long  cen- 
turies Asia  remained  unchanged,  or 
slowly  and  steadily  deteriorated.  There 
seemed  no  inherent  power  capable  of 
producing  new  life.  Thought  revolved 
perpetually  around  the  same  subjects; 
literature  repeated  the  same  stories, 
centred  its  poetry  in  the  same  themes, 
and  found  delight  in  an  increasing  mi- 
nuteness of  style  and  ornament.  Gov- 
ernment discovered  no  new  system, 
and  wars  or  revolutions  simply  re- 
placed one  set  of  rulers  by  another. 
In  neither  rulers  nor  ruled  were  great 
ideals  of  human  liberty  or  progress 
produced.  So  was  it  in  India  and  in 
China  and  in  Japan.  Under  varying 
conditions,  with  varying  civilizations 
and  varying  developments,  the  same 
spirit  was  in  all  and  the  same  results 

289 


C6e  Spirit  of  tbe  Drtent 


were  produced.  Everywhere  the  end 
had  been  reached,  and  there  seemed 
to  be  "no  new  thing  under  the  sun." 
The  spirit  of  Asia  had  exhausted  it- 
self; it  had  no  new  inspirations  and  no 
new  visions.  Its  thought  of  the  uni- 
verse was  of  a  vast  living  organism 
circling  round  and  round  forever;  over 
all  was  Fate,  ruling  spirit  and  body 
alike.  Suddenly  upon  this  repose  came 
the  foreign  invasions,  an  incursion  of 
barbarians  from  the  outer  world.  It 
was  all  unwelcome,  for  it  disturbed  the 
calm  and  excited  alarm.  These  men 
were  uncultivated  and  rude ;  they  were 
aggressive.  And  as  in  the  past  war  had 
always  been  because  of  such  incur- 
sions of  savages,  so  now  violence  was 
the  natural  accompaniment  of  this 
disturbance.  In  India  the  people  soon 
submitted  to  the  inevitable,  and  found 
that  they  had  gained  by  the  change 
in  masters.  In  China  the  rulers  put 
their  heads  in  the  sand  and  refused  to 
look  at  the  world  around  them.  In 
290 


C6e  Jl3eto  Oporto 


Japan  the  leaders,  remembering  an- 
cient examples,  sought  at  first  to  com- 
prehend and  then  to  master  the  mar- 
vel. They  could  really  comprehend  only 
the  spirit  of  the  West,  and  they  un- 
derstood that  this  spirit  is  not  the 
guardian  of  the  white  man,  but  is  the 
guide  of  all  races,  impartial,  beneficent, 
potent. 

What  really  has  taken  place  in  Eu- 
rope and  America  during  the  ages  of 
separation  which  made  the  white  man 
invincible  when  at  last  isolation  was 
no  longer  possible?  The  answer  is  on 
the  surface  and  it  is  as  true  as  it  is 
plain.  In  the  Occident  man  has  be- 
come at  once  scientific  and  free.  The 
first  made  him  master  of  the  powers 
of  nature,  the  second  made  him  mas- 
ter of  himself.  It  is  wonderful  how  few 
have  been  the  men  and  how  narrow 
the  line  by  which  modern  civilization 
has  attained  its  present  height.  A  few 
great  scholars  discovered  the  method 
by  which  nature  should  be  interro- 

291 


C6e  Spirit  of  t&e€)uent 


gated,  and  a  comparatively  few  men 
were  born  with  the  instinct  for  liberty. 
Yet  all  our  progress  rests  on  these  two 
things.  Examine  for  a  moment  more 
closely  into  their  nature. 

Liberty  in  its  true  sense  has  been 
possible  only  where  men  are  thought 
of  as  sons  of  God.  That  breaks  down 
the  artificial  barriers  which  man  has 
made,  and  gives  equal  opportunity  for 
development.  But  only  here  and  there, 
under  specially  favoring  conditions, 
has  the  teaching  of  Christianity  on  this 
subject  taken  root  and  brought  forth 
fruit.  Yet  how  intimately  is  the  wel- 
fare of  humanity  bound  up  with  it! 
Progress,  civilization,  the  higher  life, 
all  these  come  from  men  of  genius, 
who  are  God's  best  gifts  to  man.  The 
great  benefactors  are  few,  and  they 
come  as  the  breath  from  heaven,  we 
know  not  how  or  when.  We  do  know 
that  genius  may  be  crushed,  and  that 
the  man  of  highest  gifts  in  a  wrong 
environment  will  accomplish  nothing. 
292 


C6e 


Now,  man  has  crushed  and  misshapen 
himself  by  tradition,  by  social  cus- 
toms, by  political  organizations.  He 
has  made  power  and  opportunity  a 
matter  of  birth  and  privilege.  Now  he 
opens  the  door  and  utilizes  the  powers 
and  the  possibilities  not  of  the  select 
few  but  of  all.  In  such  freedom  is  the 
hope  of  the  race.  Evermore,  the  world 
over,  without  regard  to  race  or  land, 
exclusive  privilege  breeds  corruption. 
It  is  not  only  that  the  denial  of  liberty 
injures  the  masses;  it  is  still  more  in- 
jurious to  the  classes,  keeping  them 
bound  to  the  system  as  it  is,  check- 
ing all  originality  and  fostering  ty- 
ranny and  corruption.  Ultimately  in 
these  conditions  the  life  of  a  people 
decays,  and  it  is  capable  of  no  high 
purpose.  From  all  this  liberty  delivers, 
and  though  it  has  its  own  perils  and 
sins,  it  none  the  less  is  the  prime  con- 
dition for  advancement. 

Science  goes  hand  in  hand  with  lib- 
erty. It  knows  neither 

293 


Cfte  Spirit  of  tfce  SDtient 


"East  nor  West,  Border,  nor  Breed,  nor  Birth," 

but  is  the  product  of  all  times  and 
places  and  races  who  participate  in 
the  common  life  which  is  its  source. 
Science  is  simply  truth  and  the  search 
after  it,  nothing  more  and  nothing  less. 
Modern  science  differs  from  other  sci- 
ence only  in  method,  in  its  attention 
to  minute  details,  in  its  belief  that  no- 
thing is  insignificant  or  to  be  over- 
looked, in  the  creed  that  man  is  to 
learn  from  nature  and  not  to  impose 
his  guesses  or  wishes  upon  it,  and  in 
the  conviction  that  the  truth  of  nature 
is  better  than  all  poetry  or  visions  or 
dreams.  Let  us  repeat  and  emphasize : 
Science  is  the  search  for  truth,  for  the 
knowledge  of  things  as  they  are,  a  pos- 
session which  makes  man  master,  giv- 
ing him  the  key  which  unlocks  the 
treasure-house  of  earth  and  sky  and 
sea.  In  the  past  man  has  learned  in 
the  hard  school  of  experience  in  a  hap- 
hazard way;  in  our  day  scientific  me- 
294 


€6e 


thod  reduces  instances  to  principles, 
and  teaches  in  the  shortest  and  the 
most  effective  manner. 

Now  the  victory  of  Japan  simply  in- 
dicates that  it  has  learned  these  two 
principles.  It  gave  up  its  old  traditions 
which  were  guesses  at  truth,  and  its 
old  forms  of  organization  which  were 
the  offspring  of  a  narrow  experience, 
and  it  entered  upon  the  pursuit  of  sci- 
ence, that  is,  of  reality.  What  it  has 
won  has  been  in  this  fashion.  It  has  no 
distrust  of  scientific  theory,  but  it  has 
asked  where  were  the  profound  scho- 
lars, the  best  teachers,  the  most  suc- 
cessful results.  Germany,  France,  Great 
Britain,  Russia,  the  United  States 
were  all  alike  to  its  students,  the  one 
question  being,  Where  shall  we  find  the 
truth  and  obtain  the  best?  The  outcome 
shows  the  merits  of  the  method  and 
makes  plain  the  pathway  to  success. 

Is  it  possible  for  the  other  Asiatics 
also?  Why  not?  Can  they  follow  where 
Japan  leads?  Certainly,  if  they  awake. 

295 


€6e  Spirit  of  t&e  HDrient 


When  Japan  again  became  acquaint- 
ed with  the  West,  as  I  have  shown, 
it  discovered  that  it  must  learn  from 
us  or  submit  to  us.  So  it  is  with  na- 
ture and  us  all ;  we  must  learn  from  it 
or  we  must  suffer  from  it.  There  is  no 
room  for  argument,  nor  is  there  any 
difference  in  China,  India  or  America. 
One  rule  is  over  all  and  one  choice 
open  to  all.  If  we  learn  from  nature 
she  gives  her  treasures  to  us;  if  we  re- 
fuse to  learn  we  remain  weak,  poor, 
miserable. 

In  the  presence  of  facts  as  clear  as 
day  it  is  idle  to  argue,  and  our  one 
problem  is,  Can  Asia  be  taught  to  see 
what  Japan  has  seen?  The  victory  over 
Russia  gives  high  hopes.  All  across  the 
continent  goes  the  thrill  of  a  new  life. 
China  feels  it  and  begins  to  say, "  What 
Japan  has  done  we  can  do."  India  feels 
it  and  there  awakes  a  new  sense  of 
patriotism  and  a  new  aspiration  for  a 
national  existence.  In  every  little  king- 
dom the  news  arouses  a  sense  of  pos- 
296 


Cbe  J(3eto 


sibilities.  To  make  the  situation  ap- 
parent required  nothing  less  than  a 
world  conflict  with  a  power  like  Rus- 
sia, whose  prowess  was  everywhere 
known  and  whose  name  brought  terror 
throughout  the  continent.  And  on  the 
other  hand,  only  Japan  with  its  intelli- 
gence, its  patriotism,  its  intense  self- 
consciousness,  its  warrior  training,  its 
homogeneity  and  its  spirit  of  devotion 
could  have  ventured  into  the  breach 
and  taught  the  lesson. 

What  then  can  be  the  danger  if  the 
lesson  be  learned?  If  it  be  not  learned  all 
things  remain  as  before,  with  a  deeper 
hopelessness  and  a  profounder  misery. 
But  if  it  be  learned  it  is  nothing  more 
than  this,  that  man  must  understand 
truth  and  live  by  it.  From  that  no  dan- 
ger can  arise,  but  from  it  all  blessings 
and  progress  come. 

Such  national  transformation  will  not 
be  accomplished  in  our  generation. 
With  all  its  energy,  Japan  has  only 
entered  upon  the  right  path,  and  its 

297 


Cbe  Spirit  of  tfce  flDrient 


good  will  be  reaped  in  the  dim  future. 
It  took  three  hundred  years  for  old 
Japan  to  assimilate  the  Chinese  civili- 
zation. The  pace  is  faster  now,  but  let 
us  be  content  nor  ask  impossibilities. 
The  achievement  will  be  unprecedent- 
ed if  the  end  of  the  twentieth  century 
sees  the  tasks  completed  which  were 
set  in  the  nineteenth ;  and  with  these 
completed  more  will  be  urgently  call- 
ing for  attention. 

India  and  China  present  situations  far 
more  difficult.  The  patriotism  which 
is  the  motive  power  must  be  created 
andanational  self-consciousness  born. 
The  immensely  greater  power  of  an- 
cient custom  and  of  immemorial  usage 
must  be  weakened,  a  race  of  leaders 
must  be  formed,  and  then,  instead  of 
a  homogeneous  people  separated  by 
small  distances,  there  are  continen- 
tal empires  with  endless  varieties  of 
speech  and  race.  Slowly  then  through 
generations  must  the  process  go  on, 
and  we  and  our  children  and  our  grand- 
298 


C6e  Jfteto  (HloriD 


children  shall  pass  away  before  it  is 
completed ;  but  we  at  least  may  wit- 
ness the  start,  and  firm  in  hope  we  see 
in  faith  the  vision  afar  off. 
The  victory  of  Japan  makes  oppor- 
tunity for  the  East.  That  is  all  which 
men  or  nations  may  ask.  America  es- 
tablishes a  Monroe  Doctrine,  saying 
to  European  aggressors,  "Hands  off." 
Japan  establishes  its  doctrine  of  like 
import,  "Asia  for  Asiatics."  This  too 
is  of  prime  importance  for  the  world. 
Had  Russia  won,  Manchuria  would  not 
have  satisfied  its  greed,  and  with  its  at- 
tack on  China  the  other  powers  would 
have  claimed  their  share.  The  last 
great  independent  empire  would  have 
lost  its  freedom,  and  a  few  great  mili- 
tary powers  would  have  divided  the 
earth.  Such  a  thought  suggests  end- 
less visions  of  disaster,  a  real  "white 
peril,"  for  Europe  as  for  Asia.  How 
could  so  great  a  spoil  have  been  di- 
vided? What  opportunity  for  strife  as 
the  birds  of  prey  descended  upon  so 

299 


C6e  Spirit  of  tbe  Drient 


vast  a  carcass !  What  possibilities  of 
evil  for  the  conquerors  as  for  the  con- 
quered! Besides,  what  European  na- 
tion has  such  store  of  capable  and 
honest  men  that  it  can  spare  enough 
to  govern  an  empire  in  the  Far  East  ? 
England  only  has  succeeded  in  part, 
and  India  taxes  its  resources;  while 
German  and  French  experiments  do 
not  lead  us  to  wish  their  extension, 
and  our  own  efforts  in  the  Philippines 
are  not  yet  such  as  to  warrant  boast- 
ing. China,  too,  is  the  hardest  of  na- 
tions for  foreigners  to  govern,  unless 
they  drop  their  strange  ways,  adopt 
the  native  customs  and  ideals,  and 
become  Chinese.  Japan  has  freed  Eu- 
rope from  its  greatest  danger  and  from 
responsibility  to  which  it  is  unequal, 
and  it  merits  our  thanks  as  it  main- 
tains "Asia  for  Asiatics." 
For  the  Chinese  themselves  the  de- 
liverance is  great.  What  conquered 
people  has  ever  produced  that  which 
is  great?  And  China  is  still  virile,  with 
300 


€6e  ifteto  22lorlD 


its  strength  unexhausted  and  its  pow- 
ers scarcely  yet  in  their  fulness.  It  has 
had  its  proportion  of  distinguished 
sons  of  genius,  and  why  should  not  the 
ages  to  come  show  their  equals,  men 
who  shall  rival  the  greatest  of  the  past 
and  make  contributions  not  only  to 
China  but  to  the  world? 

Let  us  review  our  great  subject.  The 
Spirit  of  Asia,  nourished  by  its  environ- 
ment and  coming  to  an  early  self-con- 
sciousness, soon  stopped  in  its  devel- 
opment. Its  great  mission  was  accom- 
plished in  the  remote  past,  only  Japan 
being  a  nation  born  out  of  due  time. 
But  with  its  early  maturity  it  ex- 
hausted itself,  in  part  because  of  the 
influence  of  adverse  physical  condi- 
tions (India),  in  part  because  of  im- 
memorial isolation  (China).  Without 
new  impulses  it  had  no  further  gifts  to 
bestow  upon  man,  but  was  in  part  con- 
tent with  its  attainment,  in  part  dis- 
couraged in  the  pursuit  of  happiness. 
For  the  future  it  had  no  great  outlook, 

301 


€be  Spirit  of  t&e  Orient 


but  stagnated,  its  highest  thinkers  lost 
in  the  search  for  the  "  Ultimate  and 
the  Absolute,"  its  greatest  statesmen 
and  generals  satisfied  with  the  achieve- 
ment of  personal  power  and  the  indul- 
gence of  luxury.  For  long  periods  the 
people  continued  unchanged,  or  deteri- 
orated to  less  satisfactory  conditions. 
To  them  there  came  no  great  visions 
but  only  now  and  then  revolt  against 
the  evil  administration  of  systems 
which  seemed  identical  with  the  laws 
of  the  universe.  Neither  intellectually 
nor  religiously  nor  morally  nor  materi- 
ally were  there  movements  which  pro- 
mised better  things.  No  new  religion 
arose,  though  Asia  has  been  the  cradle 
of  all  great  religions,  nor  scientifically 
was  there  any  advance  as  scholasti- 
cism riveted  its  scheme  more  and  more 
securely  upon  the  intellectual  world. 
Then  came  the  modern  era,  when  the 
West,  vigorous  to  the  point  of  insolent 
aggression,  ambitious  with  dreams  of 
a  world  conquest,  scientific  in  its  mas- 
302 


C6e 


tery  of  nature,  and  religious  with  its 
ideals  of  the  Fatherhood  of  God  and 
the  brotherhood  of  man,  came  in  con- 
tact with  it.  At  first  the  touch  was 
paralyzing  and  Asia  seemed  doomed 
to  conquest.  But  already  in  India  there 
were  evidences  of  renewed  intellectual 
life  and  the  dawn  of  a  better  day  in 
religion  and  in  intelligence.  China,  ob- 
tuse, self-satisfied  and  repellent,  would 
not  learn  its  lesson,  but  tried  to  live 
within  its  walls,  through  which  none 
the  less  the  forces  of  modern  civili- 
zation were  making  breaches.  Finally 
in  these  last  years  Japan  arose  and 
showed  the  better  way. 
The  great  problem  now  emerges:  Is 
the  Spirit  of  Asia  capable  of  assimi- 
lating the  Spirit  of  Europe?  As  we 
pointed  out,  Japan  makes  the  attempt. 
Confident  in  itself,  it  believes  that  it 
can  combine  the  best  of  both  and  pro- 
duce a  new  civilization  better  than  any 
the  world  has  known.  It  is  a  great  ef- 
fort, with  endless  difficulties  in  the  way, 

303 


C6e  Spirit  of  tfjeflDrient 


and  yet  upon  its  success  depends  the 
future  of  the  larger  part  of  humanity. 
It  is  not  to  be  hoped  that  Japan,  still 
less  Asia,  will  be  Europeanized.  It 
would  be  a  sorry  outcome  were  the 
empires  of  the  East  to  be  mere  copies 
of  the  empires  of  the  West.  The  ideal 
is  not  a  dull  identity  but  a  true  diver- 
sity. When  one  has  crossed  the  Amer- 
ican continent  he  has  had  enough  of 
the  sameness,  enough  of  the  hotels 
and  cities  and  houses  built  on  the 
same  plan,  enough  of  conversation  in 
the  same  tones  and  on  the  same  top- 
ics, enough  of  a  life  which  is  actuated 
by  like  impulses  and  characterized 
by  like  equalities.  However  good  it  is, 
one  craves  a  change  and  can  sympa- 
thize with  those  who,  weary  of  it,  re- 
gret the  new  movements  which  intro- 
duce modern  methods  and  ways  in 
the  East.  But  Japan  again  is  our 
guide.  As  we  have  pointed  out  suf- 
ficiently, its  early  civilization  was  Chi- 
nese but  the  completed  result  unique. 
304 


Cfte 


As  has  been  said,  it  first  adopted,  then 
adapted,  and  finally  improved.  It  was 
too  distinctive  and  too  virile  merely 
to  copy.  So  is  it  with  ourselves.  What 
diverse  elements  have  entered  into 
our  civilization !  what  great  debts  do 
we  owe  to  all  kinds  and  conditions 
of  men !  And  yet  the  result  is  our  own, 
so  that  we  are  already  widely  differ- 
entiated from  our  nearest  neighbors 
across  the  seas.  So  must  it  be  when 
great  nations  receive  gifts  and  teach- 
ing from  others.  It  is  a  sign  of  self- 
confidence  that  the  Japanese  are  ready 
to  borrow  without  fear  and  to  follow 
foreign  guidance  implicitly.  They  know 
that  their  national  genius  will  assert 
itself  and  that  the  final  outcome  will 
be  unmistakably  their  own.  So  shall 
it  be  with  India  and  with  China:  learn 
they  must,  but  modify,  adapt,  and  in 
their  own  way  improve  they  will. 
Thus  we  shall  see  a  new  world,  with 
a  civilization  vastly  superior  to  any 
history  has  known.  It  will  be  one  in 

305 


€&e  Spirit  of  tbe  SDrient 


its  acceptance  of  science,  the  princi- 
ples which  all  must  acknowledge,  but 
different  in  the  specific  application  of 
the  truth,  for  the  clothing  of  the  life 
will  differ  with  differing  races  and  en- 
vironments. Thus  the  new  will  be  bet- 
ter than  the  old  because  based  on  a 
fuller  knowledge  of  truth,  and  as  di- 
versified as  the  old  because  human 
nature  in  varying  circumstances  will 
variously  assert  itself. 

To  such  end  the  various  great  move- 
ments contribute.  There  was  the  dan- 
ger that  the  West  would  be  untrue 
to  the  principles  of  the  religion  it  pro- 
fesses and  attempt  by  brute  force  to 
compel  compliance  with  its  ambitious 
will.  But  that  dream  is  dispelled.  We 
must  now  depend  upon  other  means. 
Conquer  the  East  by  arms  we  cannot ; 
we  must  depend  upon  truth,  in  science, 
in  religion  and  in  commerce.  Compel 
obedience  we  cannot ;  win  agreement 
we  must  by  the  force  of  sympathy. 

With  this  outlook  we  must  conclude 
306 


by  asking  what  gifts  the  Spirit  of  the 
East  has  to  bestow  upon  the  West. 
We  are  already  its  debtors,  but  it  has 
more  to  give.  We  widen  our  view  of 
the  world  as  we  learn  that  we  are 
not  "the  people,"  but  that  God  has  an 
equal  care  for  the  multitudes  in  Asia, 
and  that  they  have  their  rights,  their 
dignity,  and  their  claims  upon  respect 
and  reverence.  But  beyond  this  the 
East  may  teach  us  lessons  of  which  we 
stand  in  need.  The  material  and  phy- 
sical elements  of  our  civilization  are 
too  prominent  beyond  all  question. 
Our  life  is  burdensome  and  compli- 
cated. We  are  intent  upon  the  means 
of  life,  and  not  sufficiently  interested 
in  life  itself.  We  are  absorbed  in  the 
concrete,  the  external,  the  particular, 
and  not  reverent  of  reflection,  medi- 
tation and  patience.  We  are  individ- 
ualistic and  personal,  too  certain  of 
ourselves,  too  mindful  of  our  position 
in  the  organism.  The  East  may  cor- 
rect these  errors  and  teach  us  that 

307 


Cfie  Spirit  of  tbe  Orient 


our  life  is  not  in  the  abundance  of  the 
things  which  we  possess. 

In  the  East  the  organism  is  supreme ; 
in  the  West  the  individual.  The  Spirit 
of  the  East  there  had  finished  its 
course,  but  coming  to  us  it  may  lead 
us  away  from  our  absorption  in  the 
things  of  sense  and  introduce  new 
elements  into  life  and  thought;  and 
we  shall  teach  the  East  the  value  of 
personality,  and  the  world  shall  be  the 
dwelling-place  of  the  children  of  God. 
From  this  union  of  East  and  West 
shall  come  the  higher  and  better  hu- 
manity and  the  new  world  in  which 
abide  peace  and  truth. 


Cbe  <ZEnD 


India 

Asiatic  Studies,  Lyall,  2  vols.,  London,  1899. 

The  Indian  Village  Community,  B.  H.  Baden-Powell. 

A  Brief  History  of  the  Indian  People,  W.  W.  Hunter. 

New  India  Cotton.  (Trubner  &  Company.) 

Indian  Life  in  Town  and  Country,  H.  E.  Compton. 

Hinduism,  M.  Williams.  (Society  for  the  Promotion  of  Chris- 
tian Knowledge,  London.) 

Buddhism,  T.  W.  R.  Davids.  (Society  for  the  Promotion  of 
Christian  Knowledge,  London.) 

China 

The  Middle  Kingdom,  2  vols.,  S.  W.  Williams.  (The  au- 
thoritative work  on  the  empire,  its  geography,  history, 
literature,  religion,  government,  &c.) 

Chinese  Characteristics,  A.  H.  Smith.  (An  exceedingly  acute 
and  brilliant  study  of  people,  somewhat  too  severe  in  its 
judgments.) 

China  in  Convulsion,  A.  H.  Smith.  (The  best  study  of  the 
Boxer  troubles  and  the  siege  of  Peking.) 

Village  Life  in  China,  A.  H.  Smith. 

The  Religions  of  China,  J.  Legge.  (Scribner. ) 

Buddhism  in  China,  S.  Beall.  (From  the  excellent  series  of 
small  handbooks  published  by  the  Society  for  the  Pro- 
motion of  Christian  Knowledge,  London.  Brief  and  au- 
thoritative.) 

Confucianism,  R.  K.  Douglass.  (From  the  excellent  series 
of  small  handbooks  published  by  the  Society  for  the  Pro- 
motion of  Christian  Knowledge,  London.  Brief  and  au- 
thoritative.) 

Chinese  Life  in  Town  and  Country.  (Putnams.) 

3« 


Japan 

The  Mikado's  Empire,  W.  E.  Griffis.  (Harpers.)  Ninth  Edi- 
tion. (A  good  popular  account  of  the  mythology,  history 
and  customs.) 

Things  Japanese,  B.  H.  Chamberlain.  (The  best  summary, 
with  a  brief  paragraph  upon  all  topics  of  interest  by  the 
man  who  is  the  highest  authority.) 

Japanese  Girls  and  Women,  A.  M.  Bacon.  (By  far  the  best 
account  of  its  topic,  though  rose-colored. ) 

Unbeaten  Tracks  in  Japan,  Isabella  Bird  Bishop.  (Though 
written  more  than  twenty  years  ago  this  remains  the  best 
book  by  a  traveller.) 

Tales  of  Old  Japan,  A.  B.  F.  Mitford.  (A  delightful  account 
of  the  old  Japan  which  passed  away  with  the  coming  of 
foreigners.) 

The  Gist  of  Japan,  R.  B.  Peery.  (A  brief  and  interesting  ac- 
count of  the  people  as  they  appear  to  a  missionary.) 

Japan :  An  Interpretation,  L.  Hearn.  (Japan  as  it  appears 
to  a  man  of  highly  artistic  temperament) 

The  Evolution  of  the  Japanese,  S.  L.  Gulick.  (Full  of  inter- 
esting and  acute  observation.) 

Japanese  Life  in  Town  and  Country,  G.  W.  Knox. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


Form  L9-100m-9,'52(A3105)444 


Knox  - 

18       The  spirit  of 
K7?s tire Orient. 


ooo 


p\\W*  X  .*  A 

\J  ~~ 


